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 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:

Kidney Walk 2021

Thank you for your support!

Russell Sawatsky

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 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

 

 

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 “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.

Thank you for your support!

Russ Sawatsky

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 died a few days later. She donated her organs — liver, kidneys, lungs and heart — to help save the lives of five people. (GoFundMe)

Celebration of Life for Shera Morgan who died of a brain aneurysm is set for Nov. 9 at Tzeachten Hall

• JENNA HAUCK
• Nov. 7, 2019 10:40 a.m.
• COMMUNITY

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.

 

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 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:

A lucky draw in the private member’s bill lottery means Calgary MP Len Webber’s bill on organ donation has a much better chance of passing

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

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 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.

Thank you for your support!

Russ Sawatsky

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 than 80 percent of Canadians are in favour of organ donation, but fewer than 20 percent actually go through the process of registering as a donor or “opting in” to the registry.

Here is an opinion article by Michael Enright, host of the CBC Radio show Sunday Morning that discusses the impact Nova Scotia’s decision can make on Canada’s “pathetic” record for organ donation. I invite your comments.

How Canada could change its ‘pathetic’ organ donation record: Michael’s essay

Let us bow our heads in gratitude and raise a glass to the province of Nova Scotia. Impossible to do at the same time, I grant you, but give it a shot.

A grateful nation has many reasons to thank Nova Scotia: the landscape, Pier 21, the people, lobster, Bob Stanfield, Lunenburg and Joe Howe.

The latest contribution of the Bluenose province to the betterment of mankind came this week when the provincial government introduced a bill to make every Nova Scotian an automatic organ donor.

When the bill becomes law, Nova Scotia will become the first jurisdiction in North America to operate a donor system known as presumed consent.

Under this system, everyone is considered willing to donate an organ unless he or she makes the determination to opt out.

It is used in 20 European countries and has led to an increase in organ donations and transplants.

‘Pathetic’ Canadian donation record

It couldn’t come at a better time. In terms of donation, Canada’s record is pathetic.

While more than 80 per cent of us say we believe in donation, only 20 per cent of us have made plans.

Click here to read more.

 

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 wanted to give his organs.”

Six people across Canada benefited from his organs and the Logan Boulet Effect soon followed. Nearly 100,000 Canadians signed up to become organ donors after learning he had signed his own card.

Bernadine and Toby Boulet, parents of the late Humboldt Broncos hockey player Logan Boulet, pose at their home in Lethbridge, Alta., on Dec.6, 2018.

LETHBRIDGE, ALTA.

THE CANADIAN PRESS

PUBLISHED DECEMBER 25, 2018

(Retrieved through The Globe and Mail)

Please click here to read the rest of the article and then go to this site to see about registering as an organ donor in your province.

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 began with a knock at the door and a gift of bottled water.

It has become about so much more — a 65-year-old Afghan man and a 29-year-old Canadian man sharing meals, religion, culture, respect and now, almost unbelievably, a kidney.

On an August day in 2012, Ghulam Akbar Momand and 18 of his family members moved into a Rebecca Street highrise, only to find their three units without water or electricity due to a building emergency.

It was not an ideal welcome to Canada for the Afghan family, who recently arrived in Hamilton via Pakistan.

That same day, neighbour Andy Clutton made his way through the 16-storey building along with a group of other residents, distributing water bottles to help those who couldn’t make it out of their units.

Going door-to-door, Clutton met Momand — who he calls “Dr. Akbar” — along with the rest of his family living in the building, which included nine children.

It was the start of a beautiful friendship between the two men born more than three decades apart in different countries with different skin colours.

“From that day, we make our friendship,” Momand said about Clutton. “A friend who gives … half of life to you — I find this friend.”

The story of how the two men went from “friends to donors” grew out of their shared medical experience, explains Clutton, who is recovering well after donating one of his kidneys to Momand three weeks ago.

Momand, who was chief and served as doctor in his village of Mangwal, Afghanistan, would routinely perform procedures like circumcisions and pull teeth.

Clutton, a father of three, works as a palliative-care nurse in Grimsby.

“Even though (Momand’s) English was very poor then, there were many terms in Latin through medical terminology that we could tell stories about, laugh about and learn from each other on,” Clutton said.

Clutton’s shift work also meant the two could have tea often. Through these meetings, Clutton learned of Momand’s medical conditions, including slowly deteriorating kidneys that led to him being on dialysis for more than three years.

In 2015, the father of 10 had a heart operation. The stress of the surgery caused his kidney function to rapidly decrease.

As Momand’s health continued to decline, the family looked into whether one of his children could be a living kidney donor, but none were eligible because both Momand and his wife have diabetes, said Clutton.

So, the family approached Clutton and another friend in the building, Varun Rana, for help explaining their situation to other Canadians.

Not knowing what being a kidney donor involved, Rana and Clutton began exploring basic questions, such as eligibility and the length of the process.

“Initially, just to find out the facts, but kind of setting our hearts to walking through this door until the door was closed,” Clutton said.

Several years ago, Clutton, his wife Shannon and a group of their friends — including Rana and his wife Amelia — moved into the Beasley neighbourhood purposefully to serve immigrants and refugees.

“Varun and I were part of a team that would try to use our spare time to help the neighbourhood,” he said.

They are part of a small movement called MoveIn, in which Christians move into low-income, high-density communities with large newcomer populations to follow Jesus’ example.

“We’ve always explained ourselves in this neighbourhood as trying to imitate the life of Jesus in service to others,” said Clutton, who grew up in the Philippines and went to high school in Toronto.

Click here to read more…

Andy Clutton, right, says he donated a kidney to Ghulam Akbar Momand due to a “spiritual conviction” to live life like Jesus. – Photo courtesy of Andy Clutton

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 cause.

I am not a selfie pro. I cannot take a picture of myself and smile at the same time! The green shirt indicates a “champion,” with over $1000 raised.

Not everyone with kidney disease (or a transplant) is an old geezer like me. Among the folks I saw today was a family who were walking on behalf of their little son, who appeared to be all of 4 years old. Kidney Disease is a generic term because it can arise from a variety of causes and at a variety of ages. One young man of 34 spoke of his disease as having been genetic, inherited. The disease I was diagnosed with at 25 has its own distinct story. Whether known or unknown, I am grateful for the support of people like you, which helps advance patient care and medical research. Thank you.

Russ Sawatsky