This week, a flag was raised at the Orillia City Centre to mark Organ Donation Awareness Month.
For the fifth straight year, the local ceremony was organized by the dynamic duo of Deanna Peacock and Margot Crowder-Davidson.
For Peacock, the campaign is a labour of love and has deep personal significance.
In 2012, she required a life-saving double-lung transplant after being diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
She said that transplant not only saved her life, it gave her “the gift of a second chance.”
Peacock and Crowder-Davidson, her long-time friend, have made it their mission to spread the word about the importance of organ donation.
When they started raising awareness locally, in 2013, only 23 per cent of Orillians had registered to be organ donors. Now, that number stands at 38 per cent.
While thankful for that spike, Peacock believes there’s still room for improvement.
“Our goal is to get that number to 50 per cent,” she said.
Increasing the number is critical not just in Orillia, Mayor Steve Clarke said at the flag-raising event at city hall.
He read an official proclamation marking Organ Donor Awareness Month that noted more than 1,600 people in Ontairo are on a wait-list for organs and tissue.
A person in Ontario dies every three days while waiting for a live-saving organ transplant.
“In 2018, 333 deceased and 274 living donors saved the lives of 1,236 people through transplant and 2,413 tissue donors enhanced the lives of thousands through the gift of eyes, bones, skin or heart valves,” the mayor read from the proclamation.
“Research shows the majority of Ontarians support organ donation, but just 32 per cent of eligible Ontarians have registered their consent,” he added.
He implored Orillians to do their part and register to be donors.
ORGAN DONATION FACTS:
- One organ and tissue donor can save up to eight lives and enrich as many as 75.
- About 1,500 people in Ontario are on a waiting list for a transplant. Every three days, someone dies while waiting for a life-saving organ transplant.
- Everyone has the potential to be an organ and/or tissue donor regardless of age or health.
- The first and foremost duty of health-care professionals is to save a life. Only when a life cannot be saved does organ and tissue donation become an option.
