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Organ donation is important to me because it saved my life. In 2019, I was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. During the next 5 years my liver was stable. In 2024, an ultrasound showed that I had three spots on my liver. My doctor was concerned as my blood results continued to show increasing issues with my liver function. At the end of 2024 I was scheduled for a second opinion. After having a biopsy of the spots, in early 2025 I was advised that I had hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer). After meeting with the oncologists, it was determined that the cancer was untreatable due to the existing damage to my liver. My only option was to have a liver transplant. A recommendation was sent to my doctor to get me put on the transplant list as soon as possible. This news was not what we were hoping for and was very difficult to comprehend at the time. In early 2025, I had my consultation at the Transplant Clinic. After meeting all the necessary criteria, I was put on the transplant list. This was quite an exciting but scary time for my family and I. In order to receive an organ you must be a perfect blood type match to the donor. I am AB+ blood type which only 4% of the population in Canada have. Due to this, the wait time to get an organ would either be a very long wait or it could happen quite quickly. I made a choice to stay positive and to believe that a miracle would happen even though the uncertainty of it all was the most difficult thing to handle. In mid 2025 while sitting in the Cage Office, I received the call I was hoping for. A match had been found. My whole body began to shake; I didn’t know what to do at first. Panick set in as I called my husband to let him know the unbelievable news. Before being wheeled into the operating room, I said goodbye and I love you to my husband, brother and sister-in-law not knowing if this would be for the last time. I told my husband “I Got This” before they wheeled me away. My surgery lasted 13 hours and the recovery process was slow and difficult, but I wanted to survive and put my mind to doing so. I am sharing my story to bring awareness to how each and every one of you can save someone's life.

Anyone who knows and loves me should register

Because life is so unpredictable, you never know what life is going to hand you. You or a loved one could be healthy one day and in desperate need of an organ transplant the next. Without unselfish donors there may not be an organ available to save your/their life.