With over 4,000 people in Canada awaiting a lifesaving organ or tissue transplant, organizations across Canada are stressing the importance of signing up to be a donor.
This is National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Week across Canada. Barb Gibbons, coordinator with the Organ Donation Program in Newfoundland and Labrador, estimates that there are 60-70 people in the province currently on the waitlist, plus patients who need a heart or lung transplant have to move to Ontario if they are on that waitlist.
About 244,000 people in this province have signed up, but only roughly 5 per cent of those remain eligible at or near end-of-life stage.
To become a donor, you can sign up through MCP. Gibbons says, equally important is to have a discussion with family members so that everyone is aware of a person’s wishes.