Lifesavers
Are 100 Canadian lives worth $30 million
The Dilemma
For over 20 years, Canada has had one of the lowest organ & tissue donor rates in the entire world. It is a sad fact that
finally the majority of Canadians have accepted. The dilemma is that, because of the shortage, over a thousand
Canadians died while waiting for an organ to arrive, and thousands more will die unless we fix this. The system failed
them & their families. In the past 20 years, attempts were made to address the shortage through awareness programs &
additional Legislative policies. Modest gains were made, but very short of solving the shortage anytime soon.
Our efforts to increase Cadaveric organs alone, will be fruitless, unless we join the focus on Live donations, specifically
the stranger, or indirect donor.
I can & will give more detail to confirm that statement.
The solution
I believe we can fix this dilemma, but it will take bold action by our Federal Government to pass new Legislation, or to
have our Provincial Government add new resolutions to their existing organ policies. The new policy is called the
Lifesavers Act and it entails the following;
 Federally or Provincially adopt this policy
 At least, a year long program for Canadian Citizens willing to donate a piece of their liver or one of their kidneys
to a non related Canadian Citizen, that is on the Canadian Transplant Waiting List, thus being called a Lifesaver.
This is a service provided by the Lifesaver and not a sale of their body parts.
 After enrolling in this program, the Lifesaver would be chosen through the present guidelines used by Live Donor
Programs across Canada. These guidelines have proved to be the best in the world, thus making evaluations on
the potential Lifesaver’s physical & physiological profile. This potential Lifesaver would be categorized as a
stranger or indirect donor. Using this process, we can conclude that these potential Lifesavers are not selling
their organs, but rather providing a service to their country, similar to other Canadian Citizens, like Firefighters,
Police, Soldiers & anyone else risking their body to provide a service to our country.
 These Lifesavers would be given salaries, which could be evaluated for their yearlong services to our country.
For example, besides their primary service of donating their organ, they can continue bringing awareness to
organ & tissue donations in their community or across the country.
 The moral & ethical standard for this service can be compared to other Canadian Citizens that are receiving
salary to provide a service to our country, which entails risking their life. For example, the famous saying, that
when a fire breaks out, people are running away from the fire, and Firefighters run into the fire to save lives. Do
we question the moral & ethical act of doing this courageous act? Do we say they are just doing this for the
money? With proper guideline in place, to screen potential Lifesavers, why should we deny our Canadian
Citizens this honourable & civilized service? When we ask our children what they want to be when they grow up,
a good percentage will say a valuable service to our country, where their body could be in risk.

Along with the Lifesaver Act, it would include 2 other polices that would compliment this act and increase the
numbers of Cadaveric organs. The Torch Of Life Alert & Community Challenges.
a. The Torch Of Life Alert; This act is similar to Amber’s Alert. Instead of a missing child, the alert would go
out for children that are in desperate need for organ transplants. I have prepared a set of principles on
how this can be set up, Provincially or Federally. This act would also serve to bring awareness to the
Lifesaver Act and increase the number of Cadaveric organs. We all witnessed how effective this measure
was in the past and present with Helene Campbell
b. Community Challenges; This act would point out a challenge to members of all 3 levels of government,
in every community across Canada. The challenge is to see which community fares the best in the rate
of organ donation in their respective communities, by percentage in population. The results would be
easy to see when there is a registry in place such as Ontario & BC. This act would dramatically raise
Cadaveric organs and bring awareness to the Lifesavers Act.
Background to the Lifesavers
The idea of creating the Lifesavers Act has been a result of 20 years of my personal work with organ & tissue donations
in Canada & Worldwide. It did not suddenly appear to me, but rather found its way with me through a series of events.
But I must say, it was the action & the character of my friend Clairmont Humphrey, that inspired me. I watched him in
2008 when he decided to donate a piece of his liver to a non related baby girl throughout the surgery and after that. He
became the perfect example of what I would characterize as a Lifesaver
When I created my charity Step By Step in 1996, it was with the intention of making Canadians aware of organ & tissue
donations. My walk across Canada after receiving a liver transplant proved that organ donation was a cure, & no longer
voodoo medicine. It was during the walk campaign, that I wanted to thank my anonymous organ donor, but also talk to
Canadians about this issue. I passionately called the organ shortage a crisis and developed adversaries, in the organ
community as a result of this. I found it ironic that Canadians were stunned to hear this, but 99% were in favour of organ
donations and yet someone was dying every other day because an organ did not arrive. I literally talked & discussed this
issue with millions of Canadians, during my walk alone. Imagine almost every day in a different community, (over 500)
discussing this issue, with Canadians from every walk of life in schools, festivals, shopping malls, churches, sporting
events, to name a few. Imagine all the feedback I received from people during 5 years of travelling. Then it won’t be
hard to imagine, how I came to the conclusion of some simple truths that were coming from Canadians across the
country regarding organ & tissue donations. The conclusions were not based on 1,500 phone calls or emails, or
questionnaires, or a few consultations. It was based on good old fashioned one to one, one to hundred, face to face, and
in most times very extensive with concrete meaningful feedback. In other words, the conclusions were not based on my
personal opinions but from a very wide array of Canadian voices. Thousands of media outlets covered these results, and
I communicated with the same of number of government officials from all 3 levels. I had to make the case that we truly
were facing a crisis that was fixable. Among many officials that started to agree with me, 2 took some concrete action,
Premier Michael Harris & Health Minister Alan Rock. They both provided the funds but they also were both removed
from their positions, thus not being able to follow up with the recommendations. It took many more years and many
more cross Canada campaigns, before some recommendations were implemented, included is the present registry in
Ontario. I could honestly say that I was batting almost a 1,000 with the recommendations, but I wrong in one area. I was
in the mindset that if we maximized the number of Cadaveric organs, that we could truly address the shortage. Facts in
this area were hard to come by, for many reasons. Not even Spain who leads the world in Cadaveric donations, could
totally address their shortage with Cadaveric organs alone. The area that receives much less attention is Live Donations
and the answer is in the stranger or indirect donor. We need to dramatically increase the present number in Canada,
which is less than a 12 a year. Canadians simply do not have the facts or are aware of what live donations entail. I am
not that surprised that more than half of Canadians that I talked to are aware that they could donate a piece of their
liver to another human being. The Canadian Blood Services created the paired exchange for Kidney transplants, which I
believe is an excellent programs, yet most Canadians do not know of this program. The Live Stranger or Indirect Donor,
got my interest in 2007, but not until I met Clairmont was I so inspired by this. In 2009, after a series of important events,
we created a National plea to save a middle aged single mother, who was on her deathbed waiting for a liver transplant.
Resembling an Amber Alert type plea, we received in 2 days, almost 1,000 volunteers who were willing to donate a piece
of their liver to save this mother. This example proved that Canadians would respond. I was now convinced that a
solution could be around the corner, but also disappointed to find out that most of these people were turned away or
helped. The problems are many; hospitals are not equipped to test or process large numbers of potential Lifesavers. The
public is not really prepared to do this; therefore it is usually an impulse to volunteer. Most people that would do this
come from middle class backgrounds, therefore unable to afford doing this. It seems to be more important than a
random act of amazing kindness in most cases. I am totally against selling organs, and condemn all traffickers. My moral
compass is very high when it comes to organ donations, and that’s why I gave this very careful thought, and of course
prayed about this. I believe if we include Torch of Life & Community Challenges and all the other programs across
Canada, the number of Cadaveric organs can multiply. My thoughts are to plan the creation of the Lifesavers Act in
proper steps, and from my previous research I can confidently state, that if you build it they will come. The costs to save
100 people through the Lifesavers Act are $30 million. This is a rough estimate to cover medical, administration &
salaries. I do have a step by step plan which can be discussed after my introduction of this program. I believe that this
program can one day integrate in our society as the norm and other countries would start developing their own models.
We would eventually eliminate the trafficker and bring the world closer through this genuine act of love. I believe the
private sector would step up and help fund these programs as well as the government. It is the belief of almost every
country, that organ transplants is healthcare reform, therefore saving lots of healthcare dollars from patients that are
waiting and are dependent on healthcare to keep them alive. We have to think of the patients as our brothers, sisters,
mothers, fathers & children that could build their life and contribute back to their community if we only do everything
we can to save their lives. It’s the right thing to do.
Reference for Non Directed Anonymous Donor – 11 in Canada -2012
http://www.organsandtissues.ca/s/english-public/living-kidney-donation/675-2
‘‘Charlie W. Norwood Living Organ Donation Act’’. Dec. 21, 2007
1954—First successful kidney transplant performed. A living donor gave a kidney to his identical twin
1967—First successful liver transplant performed
1967—First successful heart transplant performed in South Africa.
1968—First successful bone marrow transplant performed.
some quotes
Some transplant centers argue that a fairer use for an altruistic donation would be to give that kidney to the patient at the top of the
UNOS waiting list. Indeed, some chains, known as domino chains, do end when the final donor's kidney goes to a patient on the list.
That may be a more "equitable" use of a donated kidney, but in the end it likely will result in fewer total kidney donations, says Robert
Montgomery, chief transplant surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Johns Hopkins, a major player in transplant swaps,
recently also participated in a chain. "The never-ending chain has quite a bit of merit and we're looking at it," Dr. Montgomery says.