WATCH: After CHEK News aired a story about a 31-year-old Langford mother who needs a kidney transplant, more than a dozen people came forward offering to donate theirs. April Lawrence reports.
31-year-old Drielle Tousignant is about to start dialysis as she waits for a kidney. Her first transplant in the spring failed due to a blood clot. It was donated by an acquaintance who had seen a poster shared by Tousignant and her family online.
“It blew me away that somebody I wasn’t close with, that I wasn’t best friends with would do something so big, basically save a life,” said Tousignant.
Now, after CHEK News aired the story Thursday, more than a dozen viewers have come forward offering to do the same.
The outpouring of support is welcome news to the David Foster Foundation, which raises awareness about organ donation in Canada.
“It’s wonderful to see a conversation be sparked, it’s known that 90 per cent of Canadians support organ donation but only 20 per cent are registered so the more we can actually talk about the topic and get people more aware is extremely important,” said Alicia Moyes, Director of Community Relations for the David Foster Foundation.
Both Vancouver General Hospital and St. Paul’s Hospital run living donor programs. They say living donor transplants are more successful than deceased donor transplants.
“We recommend a living donor transplant compared to a deceased donor transplant because people who get a kidney from someone who is alive tend to get a kidney faster and those kidneys tend to last longer,” said St. Paul’s Transplant Nephrologist Dr. Jagbir Gill in a video posted online by BC Transplant.
BC Transplant says 100 people are living kidney donors every year in B.C. and doctors say most have no lasting impacts.
“Most people are only in hospital a few days after they donate a kidney, their long term outcomes are good as well with many people living long healthy lives after they donate a kidney,” said Dr. Gill.
If you would like to donate a kidney to Drielle Tousignant you can contact St. Paul’s Living Donor Program at 1.877.922.9822
Vancouver General Hospital’s living donor program, which works with kidney and liver transplants, can be reached at 1.855.875.5182
If you want to check if you’re on the deceased donor organ registry click here.
For any further information about BC Transplant’s Living Donor program click here.
April Lawrence
