My talk in front of City Council on Organ Donation

This is the speech that I said in front of City Council tonight.   My hope is that it makes a difference. 

If you had the opportunity to save 8 lives would you?  Not many people would answer NO to that questions, yet many of you in this room can do that right now and yet haven’t. In fact only 39% of residents in Sault Ste Marie could answer yes to that question and an even worse stat is that only 22% of eligible Ontarians can say yes.   

Unfortunately these are the stats about organ donation in Ontario. Only 39% of Sault Ste Marie residents who are eligible to be organ donors have actually registered their consent.  Many of you are thinking, “I did that years ago on my licence, or I signed a card before”.   But that is no longer valid.  You need to go and register online.

There are currently 1536 people in ONTARIO alone waiting for an organ transplant, and every 3 days, one of those people die waiting.  Waiting, because someone did not register to be an organ donor.   But it does not have to happen.  In Ontario alone, this year to date 411 people have been actual organ donors, while 867 transplants have taken place.  Therefore looking at those stats, each organ donor saved on average 2 people, all because they registered their consent to become an organ donor, and shared their wishes with their families. 

Most people think they will never need an organ transplant, but in reality, you are more likely to NEED an organ transplant, than you will ever be an actual organ donor.  This year my family faced this situation when my sister-in-law Kim has pulmonary fibrosis and was in need of a double lung transplant.   She had to uproot her life from Elliot Lake and move to Toronto to wait for “the call”.   She moved there in February and finally got the call at the end of August that there was a set of lungs available.   Kim got her transplant and on Thanksgiving weekend was released to her apartment in Toronto to finish her recovery.   My family has Kim in their lives for hopefully many more years to come, all because a HERO made the decision to donate their organs. 

That is what I call all organ registrants, HEROES!!!   They are making the choice to save up to 8 lives and possibly enhance 75 others.  They are talking to their families and making their wishes known.  They are true SUPERHEROES.  

By taking less than 2 minutes of your time today you too can be a HERO.  What I am asking each and everyone in this room to do today is to go to www.beadonor.ca/ and register your consent.    

Today I am asking you Madam Mayor to put a direct link to the Sault Ste Marie beadonor.ca website that has already been setup, on the front page of the city’s official website.  This way when people come to our city webpage, they see that we are a city of HEROES.   I am also challenging each and every person in this room to set up their own personal page on the beadonor website and ensure that your friends and family have registered their consent.   Together we can bring the percentage of registered organ donors up to 51% and lead ALL of Ontario in registrants. 

I have a friend here who has 2 stories to share, one is her own personal experience with being an organ transplant recipient, and she also has a letter to share with you that will bring this whole need for signing up to be an organ donor to light.