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Time for a Kidney Walk, 2021 Edition

Time for a Kidney Walk, 2021 Edition

I am participating in the Kidney Walk for The Kidney Foundation of Canada to raise funds to help Canadians affected by kidney disease and to raise awareness about the importance of organ donation. This year, 2021, marks 37 years since I was diagnosed with kidney disease. Fortunately, this year also marks the fifth year since I received a kidney from a living donor. The resulting new lease on life…

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Movember, Cancer and Organ Transplants

Movember, Cancer and Organ Transplants

The month of November is is dubbed Movember, a portmanteau of Moustache and November by a charitable organization that raises money to address three areas of particular concern to men’s health: prostate cancer, testicular cancer and mental health/suicide prevention (men die by suicide over three times as often as women).

Participants in the Movember fundraiser will grow a moustache during this…

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The (Socially Distanced) London Kidney Walk 2020 is History

The (Socially Distanced) London Kidney Walk 2020 is History

This year’s Kidney Walk was quite different than previous years. It was NOT held at Gibbons Park, but rather, we were invited to walk around anywhere we wanted. I chose a convenient walk around Hastings Park, within a few minutes of our home here in north London, Ontario.

Thank you, donors!

I’ll admit to missing somewhat the festive atmosphere at Gibbons Park. Typically, walkers would gather…

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Please Sponsor My Kidney Walk: COVID-19 Edition

Please Sponsor My Kidney Walk: COVID-19 Edition

Disease is on everyone’s mind these days. COVID-19, the novel coronavirus, has brought home to our society the powerful impact that sickness can have not only on the lives of individuals and families, but on whole societies, economies and governments.

I am grateful for the blessings of health throughout this period. As a recipient of a kidney transplant, my immune system has been deliberately…

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Young Chilliwack mother donates five organs to help save others following her death

Young Chilliwack mother donates five organs to help save others following her death

I saw this article posted in an end-of-year review on the website for my hometown paper. Please read it and, if you have not yet chosen to do so, consider registering as an organ donor. If tragedy were to strike, you too could offer someone else the gift of life.

Shera Morgan is seen here with her three children Lucas (8), Wade (6) and Elena (4). Morgan suffered a brain aneurysm on Oct. 20 and…

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Calgary MP wants to use tax form to boost organ donation

Calgary MP wants to use tax form to boost organ donation

If this bill goes through, it will add a question about consent for organ donation to your tax form. Given that 90 percent of Canadians say they support organ donation, this process will make it easier for all of us to make the decision we already say we support.

Please reach out to your MP and Senators to support the passage of this bill. Doing so could make for the most wonderful Christmas…

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"You gave me life"

“You gave me life”

This inspiring article comes courtesy of Tom Hayes of Global News.

Toronto kidney recipient celebrates 40-year anniversary

When 72-year-old Tom Mitrovski’s kidneys failed, he thought he had five-to-10 years to live. That’s what he was told 40 years ago.

“I was so tired. I didn’t understand,” said Mitrovski thinking back to the early 1970s.

Mitrovski said he was told by his doctor that his kidneys…

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She saved her sister with a kidney donation. 40 years on, they're still celebrating

She saved her sister with a kidney donation. 40 years on, they’re still celebrating

Forty years ago on Thursday, Donna Watters, left, of Aylmer, went under the knife to donate a kidney to keep her sister Lorna Telheiro, of Chatham, alive. They have been celebrating the “kidney anniversary” ever since. (Ellwood Shreve/Chatham Daily News)

This is an exciting article for the not-so-mere fact that this kidney transplant from one sister to the other has lasted for 40 years. When I…

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London Kidney Walk 2019 is History - Thank you

London Kidney Walk 2019 is History – Thank you

Many thanks to all of you for spreading the word, sponsoring my walk, signing up as an organ donor and all the other wonderful things that I have received in support of efforts to address kidney disease.

My fellow walkers: my wife Etsuko and daughters Rika and Aisha

The Kidney Walk was held at Gibbons Park, London, ON. It was a beautiful day for more reasons than one.

On a monetary basis, all of…

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Please Sponsor My Kidney Walk

Please Sponsor My Kidney Walk

With deep gratitude for the blessings of health, I am again participating in the Kidney Walk for The Kidney Foundation of Canada. The goal of the walk is to raise funds to help people with kidney disease and to raise awareness about the importance of organ donation.

For me this is a very big deal because three years ago on July 29, 2016, I received a kidney transplant from a living donor. I…

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Nova Scotia passes bill for "Presumed Consent" Organ Donation

Nova Scotia passes bill for “Presumed Consent” Organ Donation

  Canada currently operates under an “Opt-In” system for organ donation. That means that you have to sign up to put yourself on your province’s list of willing organ donors. However, in a move that puts Nova Scotia first among jurisdictions in North America, the province’s legislature has passed a bill for an “Opt-Out” system also known as “Presumed Consent.” It is routinely said that greater…

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They face financial ruin to get a new lung. Some are choosing to die instead

They face financial ruin to get a new lung. Some are choosing to die instead

Here’s an article about another group of people in need of organ transplants: those who need a new lung. Although the surgery is covered by provincial health plans, lung transplants for those in Atlantic Canada require a months-long stay, with a caregiver, in Toronto, driving some to consider death rather than push their families into poverty.

They face financial ruin to get a new lung. Some are…

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The Logan Boulet effect: Death of player in Humboldt Broncos bus crash spurs a national movement

The Logan Boulet effect: Death of player in Humboldt Broncos bus crash spurs a national movement

Out of the tragedy of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash and in particular, the death of Logan Boulet, a renewed awareness of organ donation gained prominence.

When Logan’s parents learned that their son’s injuries would lead to his death, his mother asked, “What about donating his organs? Is that a possibility?” This was immediately followed by his father saying, “Logan had directed me that he…

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I was a stranger and you gave me water... and a kidney!

I was a stranger and you gave me water… and a kidney!

Andy Clutton donated a kidney to Ghulam Akbar Momand after they became friends and neighbours living in a Rebecca Street highrise. – Barry Gray,The Hamilton Spectator

The following article was first published in The Hamilton Spectator and also published in The Star.

He was a stranger next door. Then he gave him a kidney By NATALIE PADDONThe Hamilton Spectator Wed., Nov. 28, 2018

Their story…

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The Kidney Walk is done for another year. Thank you.

The Kidney Walk is done for another year. Thank you.

It was a beautiful blue-sky kind of Sunday for this year’s edition of the Kidney Foundation‘s annual Kidney Walk in London, Ontario. As fundraisers go, it was quite a success, raising in excess of $38,000 for the Foundation. On an individual level, you, my sponsors, combined to put my walk first among individual fundraisers, raising $2,360. Thank you very much for your support for me and for this…

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How Artificial Intelligence (AI) Changed Organ Donation

How Artificial Intelligence (AI) Changed Organ Donation

I received a kidney from a living donor in 2016. That this happened was a result of developments described in this article, a program run by Canadian Blood Services that would take all the available but incompatible donor-recipient pairs across Canada and seek to match them up. After going through that exercise multiple times with no success, the difference came about because an altruistic…

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Engineered pig lung transplant 'a success'

Engineered pig lung transplant ‘a success’

This development is great news for those who will need transplants in the coming years. It’s hard to imagine receiving a transplanted organ without requiring anti-rejection drugs. I take several myself every day and will continue to do as long as I have a functioning donor kidney. This is a wonderful example of the kind of research that goes on in the world of transplant medicine.

Engineered pig…