Hi. I’m Russ Sawatsky and I’ve got two bum kidneys, but since July 29, 2016 I also have a donated kidney that is working really well. On this site you’ll find out a bit about my story, how to give a kidney, get a kidney and save lives.
To find out more about organ donation, scroll down.
To be even more wonderful, talk to your family, then go online and register as an organ donor
To share your own thoughts and experiences, send a message to: kidneyforruss@gmail.com.
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 is something for which I am deeply grateful. For a variety of reasons, not everyone is able to receive a donated kidney, or at least not right away. The Kidney Foundation makes a difference in supporting the lives of those who are still waiting.
Would you like to make a donation? If so, you can do it online by clicking the “Donate Now” button in the following link:
Thank you for your support!
Russell Sawatsky
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 month in order to raise awareness of this concern. Witness my effort just below (I can’t seem to smile when I take a selfie).
In late 2008, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. As curable as I was told it was, it was deeply upsetting to hear. In fact, prostate cancer is one of those cancers that it is often said men die “with” rather than die “of.” However, watchful waiting was not an option I considered at the time. I wanted the cancer gone. So, in February 2009, I underwent a prostatectomy, the surgical removal of my prostate, and have been free of cancer ever since.
I don’t remember considering this at the time I made the decision to have the surgery, but I became aware that cancer is not a good thing to have when you are considering an organ transplant. Following a transplant, you are put on drug regime that suppresses your immune system. Without a robust immune system cancer has more freedom to spread through one’s body. When my kidney function had finally deteriorated to the point that dialysis became necessary, which was in 2014, I began the procedures to get on the transplant list. The fact that I had just passed five years without a cancer recurrence meant that I was eligible for the list. Two years later, in July 2016, I received a kidney transplant via a living donor.
In this post, I want to introduce a friend of four decades who is raising money for Movember. Norm Hiebert has been involved with this charity for the last five years. I invite you to consider donating toward men’s health via Movember through Norm’s fundraising page here.
Norm Hiebert is raising money for Movember.
There is no pressure in this, but for the men in your life, whether younger (testicular cancer), middle-aged or older (prostate cancer), or any age (mental health/suicide), please consider this as an opportunity to donate to a worthy cause.
Thanks.
Russell Sawatsky
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 together; often they are friends and family of people with kidney disease, or like me, are people who are dealing with kidney disease or living with a transplant. We would hear simultaneously sad but inspiring stories of loved ones having died but donating their organs to save the lives of others. And that would be followed by a barbecue and a celebration held after the walk. Not so much this time.
On the other hand, sponsors of my walk have really come through this year. With the latest donation, which just came through today, total sponsor donations have added up to $3,550, more than $1,000 over last year. Thank you, generous sponsors!
I’m not sure what will happen in 2021, but certainly the need to support those with kidney disease, as well as the need for ongoing research into kidney disease and transplant medicine will not be going down. For now, though, I will live in gratitude for my good health, and hope that all of you will stay safe from COVID-19 and other health concerns.
Russ Sawatsky
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 “compromised” in order to keep my transplanted kidney happy within my body. July 29, 2020 marks the fourth anniversary of that momentous occasion for my life. And not for my life alone, either, because the great fortune that I experienced could not have happened without the willingness of a living donor to step forward and donate a kidney on my behalf. It could not have happened without the Paired Kidney Donation system run by Canadian Blood Services. It could not have happened without the hospitals and specialists and researchers and all the other staff who provide the infrastructure to make transplants possible. And of course, all of this is because the people of Canada elected governments that supported the idea of public health insurance.
Specifically with respect to Kidney Disease, another source of support has been the Kidney Foundation of Canada. I participate in the Kidney Walk to raise funds that the Foundation will use in their mission to support people living with Kidney Disease and to support medical research toward a cure. I also walk to raise awareness of the importance of organ donation. The support I have received has made a huge difference in my life.
I may be looking a little weary, but I look upon it as a triumph of recovered health. I’m at the top of a mountain plateau overlooking Phoenix AZ.
The Kidney Walk here in London, ON has not been left entirely unscathed by COVID-19. The Walk will go on this year as always, but in order to protect the vulnerable, it will not take place in Gibbons Park as usual. Instead, participants will be walking in their own physically distant locations by themselves, or perhaps with family members. The date of the Walk is September 27, which is the official deadline for receiving donations.
Would you like to make a donation? If so, you can do it online by clicking here: “Donate Now.”
If donating online is not appropriate for you, reach out to me and I will provide you with some alternatives.
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 died a few days later. She donated her organs — liver, kidneys, lungs and heart — to help save the lives of five people. (GoFundMe)
A mother of three young children has given the gift of life to five people following her sudden death last month.
Shera Morgan, 36, suffered a brain aneurysm on Oct. 20 and died a few days later at Royal Columbian Hospital.
“It comes with the heaviest of hearts that we share with you that our beloved Shera was not able to recover from the aneurysm that she suffered on Oct. 20, 2019,” the GoFundMe page reads. “Shera leaves behind her loving husband, three beautiful children and a network of family and friends that will forever remember the impact she had in all our worlds and everyone around her.”
Before she died, she made it known to her family that she wanted to donate her organs to others in need.
Click here to read the full article.
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 present for all of those who are desperately waiting for an organ transplant.
Here is a link to a page that helps you find your MP.
Senate appointments are structured differently, but I suggest that you send a message to any senators who represent your province. Here is a link to a page that lists Canada’s senators. If this bill makes its way to the Senate, it can only be a positive thing for them to have been made aware of it in advance.
Here is the article for more details:
Ryan Tumilty
December 22, 2019
A Calgary MP with the luck of the draw is hoping his private member’s bill on organ donation will have a chance of becoming law and boost organ donation rates in Canada.
Conservative MP Len Webber drew the first spot in the private member’s bill lottery held this month. The lottery happens at the opening of every Parliament and dictates the order in which private member’s bills are heard. Because they don’t come from the government, the bills often don’t pass through the House of Commons, but going early in the process can be a major boost.
Webber’s bill would add a question to Canadians’ tax forms asking them whether they would be willing to be organ donors.
“Right on your income tax form there will be a question there about whether you would be willing to donate your organs upon death,” he said. “There are two things in life that are certain; death and taxes, so I thought I would tackle the tax form.”
A study from the Canadian Institute of Health Information found that 223 people died in Canada, while on waiting lists for an organ transplant in 2018. Canada’s organ donation rate is also low with 20.6 donors per million people. Spain, which has an opt-out, instead of opt-in approach to donation has a rate of 35.3 per million people.
Click here to read the rest of the article.
Merry Christmas,
Russell Sawatsky
This inspiring article comes courtesy of Tom Hayes of Global News.
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 were failing. He would undergo three years of dialysis before a donor kidney became available in 1979. Nov. 27 marks the 40th anniversary of his new kidney and noted a special attachment has formed.
“I named my kidney Gerry, so we are Tom and Gerry,” said Mitrovski while laughing.
Dr. Jeffrey Zaltsman, the head of nephrology at St Michael’s Hospital, said Mitrovski’s success is remarkable.
Click here to read the whole article and the Global TV news clip.
Anyone interested in becoming a donor can sign up at http://www.beadonor.ca.
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 received my kidney transplant from a living donor, I was told that the average time frame was 12 to 20 years, which is still a dramatic improvement compared to the typical time frame back in the 1970s. – Russ
CHATHAM — Sisters Lorna Telheiro and Donna Watters were born 14 years apart, but when it came to being a match for a kidney donation, they were just like twins.
Thursday marked a special celebration for the sisters — the 40th anniversary since Watters, 78, of Aylmer, donated a kidney to save the life of Telheiro, 64.
Four decades ago, the sisters were rolled into an operating room at London’s University Hospital, where doctors removed one of Watters’ healthy kidneys so it could be transplanted into an ailing Telheiro.
Telheiro had undergone surgery just 36 hours after being born for a polycystic tumour on her left kidney, which was lost during the life-saving procedure. Her right kidney and bowel were then reconstructed during a second surgery at 15 weeks old.
Telheiro, who moved to Chatham at age seven, learned during a visit to a specialist in her early 20s there was weakness in the muscles along the ureter tube from her kidney to her bladder that had permanently damaged the bean-shaped organ.
She was forced to spend more than three years with a urine bag, and endure another year on dialysis, before reaching the point where she needed a transplant at age 24 to survive.
Watters turned out to be a nearly a perfect match.
“She was as good as a twin,” Telheiro said.
Forty years later, the two sisters still get together to celebrate the anniversary of the transplant.
“She always seems to think she has to buy me something,” Watters said of her sister’s kidney anniversary. “I put a stop to that.”
Watters told her “she’s charging rent instead,” Telheiro joked
Telheiro remembers being told by medical professionals 40 years ago that a cadaver kidney would last her one to three years while a family-related organ would likely last three to five years.
“I had a major rejection a couple days after the transplant,” Telheiro said. “It took them a while to get it going again, but I haven’t had a minute’s problem since.”
She finds it hard to believe everything is still so good with her transplant.
“It’s kind of hard to wrap your head around that 40 years later . . . because so many people I know are on their second or third transplant,” Telheiro said.
Click here to read more.
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 and daughters.
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 you sponsored my walk in the amount of $2495, a new personal record. The London Kidney Walk itself exceeded its own goal of $32,000 by over $10,000. Your generosity is overwhelming.
I have my own story to tell about kidney disease, but most of the people who walk at these events are out there because a family member, a friend, or they themselves are dealing with the impact of kidney disease.
There were also a few people who were recognized by wearing t-shirts (almost everybody had a t-shirt of one sort or another) that identified them as living donors. The MC for our London Walk spoke about losing her dad in 2005 due to heart disease but in his death he gave life to others by donating his lungs, kidneys, liver and eyes. These are precious people.
In London, one young fellow of 13 was diagnosed with kidney disease within the last year and is preparing and hoping for a kidney transplant himself.
Another woman who went on the walk herself had a kidney transplant only five years ago, but two years in, the kidney started failing and she has recently had to go back onto dialysis while she waits for another transplant.
In Hamilton, a brother and sister, both affected by kidney disease, each received kidney transplants but sadly the sister’s transplant was unsuccessful and she had to remain on dialysis. Having gone through the aftermath of transplant surgery myself, I can only think about the disappointment she must have felt for herself even as she rejoiced for her brother.
All of the stories speak to the importance of the fundraising that the Kidney Foundation does. The Foundation supports those living with kidney disease and provides funds for research into transplantation medicine and the myriad diseases that cause kidney failure.
Thank you again,
Russ Sawatsky
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 have been restored, quite literally. Deteriorating health and increasing limitations on my ability to do the things that many other people enjoy came to an end. I was able to return to work, my wife and I are able to travel (the accompanying photo is from Japan), and in so many other ways I feel liberated. This situation is due in no small part to the generosity of others. I think in particular of the generosity and open-spiritedness of those who register as organ donors, and I think of people like you who have donated to this cause before and have therefore contributed to research into the treatment and healing of kidney disease.
Would you like to make a donation? If so, you can do it online by clicking here: “Donate Now”
If donating online is not appropriate for you, reach out to me and I will provide you with some alternatives.
Kidney for Russ 