It takes two minutes to register.
That’s the message from the Canadian Transplant Association as it gears up for its annual Green Shirt Day on Sunday, April 7.
Dozens of landmarks around B.C., including Port Coquitlam City Hall, will be lit green on that day to build awareness about the need for organ and tissue donations.
The day is also in honour of Logan Boulet, a defenceman with the Humboldt Broncos hockey team that lost 16 members on April 6, 2018, in a Saskatchewan bus crash.
Boulet, 21, who died in the collision, had previously told his parents, Toby and Bernadine Boulet, he wanted to become an organ donor, too, after being inspired by his late coach, Rick Suggitt, who suddenly passed a year earlier and saved the lives of six people as an organ donor.
After Boulet’s death, 150,000 Canadians registered to become an organ donor — creating the Logan Boulet Effect, the single largest intake of registrants in the country’s history due to one event.
Earlier this month, Kathleen Fleming, BC provincial director of the Canadian Transplant Association, thanked Port Coquitlam council for proclaiming April 7 as Green Shirt Day in the city.
And she urged residents to talk with their families about tissue and organ donation.
“There’s a disconnect,” she told PoCo city council on March 12. “Ninety percent of Canadians say they support organ and tissue donation, but only 32 per cent complete their registration.”
On average, Fleming said, almost 4,000 Canadians are on the transplant wait list, but about 250 people a year die because they can’t get the organ they need.
She said one organ donor can save up to eight lives, while a tissue donor can improve the lives of up to 75 patients.
PoCo Coun. Nancy McCurrach, a transplant recipient, praised the association for championing the cause.
On April 5, the charity will offer a free skate at the Port Coquitlam Community Centre for 75 students at Central Elementary and Pitt River Middle. Information about becoming a donor will also be available on site.
“Six years have passed since the Humboldt Bronco tragedy. Logan’s legacy is stronger than ever as we remember his knowing grin, massive heart, and giving nature,” said Toby Boulet, in a news release.
“We also remember the other members of the Bronco family who passed as well as those who survived. And, we take time to think of the many deceased donor families with whom we feel a kinship of wanting to hold our loved one again and the acceptance that lives were saved by the simple, yet complex decision of becoming an organ donor.”
To sign up as an organ and tissue donor, visit the BC Transplant registry.
