08/14/2025
Please share to help!!
To all my Facebook friends, family, acquaintances, friends of friends,
It’s time for another update. Five of my family members and friends have tested in Toronto to be live liver donors. Sadly, none were a match for me. I need your help! I am reaching out with a humble and urgent request to share my post and/or consider testing to be my live donor.
Over the past few weeks my health has been deteriorating. I have had a trip to the ER, been put on antibiotics for infection and have been feeling weaker as my disease progresses. Doctors have confirmed that a transplant is the only option to save my life.
How can you help? I am looking for a donor with Type A+, A- or O+, O- blood type. The transplant will take place at Toronto General Hospital (check out the link below for more information). Anyone between the ages of 16 and 60 years and in good physical health (no diabetes, cancer, kidney or heart disease) and mental health can apply to be a living donor for myself. Feel free to message me, my wife or my sister if you have any questions about the testing.
I was diagnosed 10 years ago with a liver condition. There was no known cause to my disease. I was healthy, happy and leading a regular life. Five years ago I was diagnosed with a very rare liver disease called PSC. PSC affects 1 in 100 000 people and unfortunately I am one of them. Over the last year my liver has reached the end of its life and I’m on the transplant list for a liver.
I’m looking forward to life after the transplant. I wish to travel the world and explore life in a whole new light, one where I can enjoy a better and more energized life with my wife.
To learn more about living donation and to apply to become my living liver donor, please visit: https://www.uhn.ca/.../Livi.../Pages/living_liver_donor.aspx. There is a 12-page health history to be completed here:https://www.uhn.ca/.../Living_Donor_Health_History_Form.pdf You must provide proof of blood type, either from your blood donor card, or through a family physician. Completing and submitting this health history is your application. The application form asks for my full name and her date of birth. PM me to find this information please. And feel free to message me to ask me any questions.
Candidates go through a comprehensive assessment to ensure they are healthy enough to donate.
The Northern Travel Grant will support the testing and transplant expenses for travel. International and out of province donors will also be considered. The donor does not need to be a relative or the same ethnicity (that matters for stem cells, not organs). The criteria for living organ donors are different than for blood donors. If you are not eligible to donate blood, you may still be able to be a living organ donor.
For a person like me diagnosed with liver disease there is a long and difficult wait for a deceased donor. After extensive testing, I was placed on the transplant list in January 2025. Sadly, some patients will die waiting. I have been off work since September as I am too sick to continue with my job. I have been a Gas Fitter Technician for the past 11 years and I loved my job. Now each and every day is a struggle and some days I am unable to perform basic tasks around the house. A person dies every three days in Ontario because they don't get the lifesaving transplant they need. I am reaching out for someone to be my live donor. I don’t want to get any sicker than I already am.
Living liver donation is when a live person donates a portion of their liver. A living donor’s liver regenerates in approximately six weeks! In finding a living donor, I would be removed from the deceased donor list and everyone else eagerly waiting for a liver will move up one spot. The living donor will be saving TWO lives: me and the person behind me on the waiting list!
Since 1990, more than 1,000 living liver donor transplants have been done at Toronto General Hospital. All donors have returned to their regular lifestyle with no restrictions.
When my health allows, I have coffee with friends, enjoy walking and spending time at the lake. I also love gatherings with friends and family.
Anyone can help by sharing this post.
If you’d like answers to any questions about living liver donation, contact:
Centre for Living Organ Donation at UHN
Phone: 416-340-5400
Email: livingorgandonation@UHN.ca
Website: http://www.livingorgandonation.ca
You can ask questions anonymously to learn more about living liver donation. Communications between a potential living donor and donor team are confidential and not shared with the recipient.
The UHN Centre for Living Donation hosts weekly on-line information sessions for potential donors, people on the waitlist and caregivers. To register for the next Potential Living Liver Donors session, please visit https://givelifeuhn.eventbrite.ca
To view stories from across Canada of living liver donors and recipients visit: https://www.greatactions.ca/
Please share this with anyone you know who might be willing to help. We will need someone brave and generous to give myself the gift of life.
Thank you so much to anyone who applies and spreads the word. We are all deeply grateful to you.
