Canadian Trail riders raise $55K for transplant patients

Most lung transplant patients and their families are faced with financial hardships before, during and following their surgery. In addition to loss of income because of inability to continue working, they must maintain their home residences and face double living expenses because they must live near their transplant center while waiting for their transplant and during the three-month follow-up. I salute the Trail Riders for this very successful project which will greatly help patients and families.

CBC NEWS

A group of lung transplant recipients hit the trail to raise $55,000 for organ transplant patients and their families.

Called the 2nd Chance Trail Ride, the riders gathered near Elk Point, in northeast Alberta, in May.

Riders from the 2nd Chance Trail Ride raised $55,000 to build and furnish an apartment suite to benefit organ transplant patients and their families at the University of Alberta. (CBC)

Double-lung transplant recipient Harvey Nelson was one of the participants in the trail ride.

A lifelong rider, Nelson was forced to quit horseback riding as his health deteriorated. Once he got the transplant, he said his life completely changed.

“It’s given me just a total second chance on life,” he said.

Now, he and his fellow riders are hoping to help others make the same dramatic recovery by donating the funds to theGoodHeartsFoundation.

The foundation will use the cash to build and furnish a new suite near the University of Alberta for transplant patients and their families to use while going through the transplant process, which takes about three months.

“The apartment gives [families] a chance to be here and be with their loved one that is going through the transplant,” said Nelson. “So it makes quite a difference to the families that are doing it.”

In addition to building the apartment, Nelson also hopes the trail-ridersfundraising efforts will help raise awareness about the need for organ donations.

“We need more [organ donations] because there's quite a waiting list for it,” he said.

“It's difficult to go through life when you know you need a transplant and there isn't an organ there for you.“

The U of A hospital is Canada’s biggest and busiest transplant centre.*

*I believe this is a typo and originally meant to say that U of A hospital is Alberta's busiest transplant center, not Canada's. Toronto's University Health Network Multi-Organ Transplant Program is Canada's biggest and busiest, with over 400 organ transplants yearly and follow-up with more than 5,000 patients.

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – Sign-up today! Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Donor Registration Links 

Transplant patient will advocate for others

Although Canada has a National Health Care program patients must still provide for their travel and accommodation costs plus other living expenses when moving to a distant transplant center for their procedure.

CBC News
The Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) government needs to do more to help people like her who have to travel off-Island for medical procedures, says a double-lung transplant patient.

Melissa MacPhail recently received a double-lung transplant in Toronto. She's been living there since January 2010 at a cost of $3,000 a month. Her rent alone has been $1,500. When she arrived with her son and mother she was receiving no support from the government at all, but the province began providing $1,000 a month last spring.

That's still significantly less than the $1,500 other Maritime governments provide.

"To match New Brunswick and Nova Scotia would be nice," MacPhail told CBC News Wednesday.

"An extra $500 that could go towards food right? When you're sick, families are stressed."

The provincial government could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

MacPhail received her transplant in November, but her expenses in Ontario continue. She is still being monitored by doctors at Toronto General for signs her body is rejecting the lungs.

The 32-year-old suffers from scleroderma, a disease which causes hardening of the lungs and makes it impossible to breathe. She is still on medication for that, plus anti-rejection medication. In total 65 pills a day.

"It's very nerve-racking, I'm trying not to focus on it. You always have it in the back of your mind. It can never go away because it's your life," she said.

Still, MacPhail is thrilled with the difference her new lungs are making in her life.

"I'm still kind of like, pinch me! To take a big deep breath now feels like the big wow factor," she said.

Three months ago MacPhail could barely walk down the hall without straining to breathe, now she can go skating with her son Keegan.

"That was really amazing because when I was skating my lungs weren't the issue, but my ankles [were], just from being out of shape," she said.

MacPhail got to see her old lungs, and she said they looked bad: full of fibrosis and white lumps where it should have been delicate pink tissue. The doctor told her he was surprised she lasted this long with them.

Campaigning for organ donors
MacPhail has met a lot of other people waiting for transplants while in Toronto, which she said has been wonderful, but also frustrating as she watched people die because transplants were not available.

"It's so life-changing, in bad ways and good ways," she said.

"I've met so many wonderful people along the way, but I've lost wonderful friends along the way too."

When she returns to P.E.I. MacPhail plans to start a campaign for organ donation in the Maritimes. She wants to travel around telling her story; living proof that signing donor cards can save a life.

MacPhail hopes to move back to P.E.I. in June.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today!
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

P.E.I. transplant patients to get $1,000 a month for living expenses

CBC News

This is a happy resolution to my previous post about the plight of Melissa MacPhail in seeking help with living expenses while waiting for a lung transplant in Toronto, a thousand miles away from home in Prince Edward Island.

Islanders who have to leave P.E.I. to await organ transplants will get some financial support from the province.

Health Minister Carolyn Bertram announced relief for patients like Melissa MacPhail, a 31-year-old Stratford woman who has been awaiting a lung transplant in Toronto since January.

MacPhail’s case has been widely publicized, and Opposition leader Olive Crane championed her cause in late March, calling on the government to cover housing costs for transplant recipients who have to live out-of-province while waiting for surgery.

Now, patients will be eligible for $1,000 a month for room and board, equivalent to the compensation paid by New Brunswick, Bertram said. Nova Scotia provides up to $1,500 for its patients.

MacPhail has said publicly that her living expenses in Toronto are around $2,000 a month.

Bertram also announced that eligible patients will have access to $1,500 every six months to travel back to P.E.I. if they are awaiting transplants outside the Maritimes.

The money for accommodations and travel will only be available for people who need to leave P.E.I. for heart or lung transplants and for anyone needing liver or non-beta-cell pancreas transplant surgery.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help 75 to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Living expenses soar while waiting for lung transplant

Further to my previous post this story gives more insight into Melissa MacPhail's plight as she deals with the financial burden of living a thousand miles from her home in Prince Edward Island, Canada while waiting for a lung transplant in Toronto.

Melissa MacPhail of Stratford, Prince Edward Island, Canada says breathing in oxygen through a tube 24 hours a day is not only uncomfortable but the oxygen burns her nose. She is in Toronto awaiting double lung transplant surgery when a suitable donor is found. Submitted photo

By Jim Day The Guardian

Melissa MacPhail is waiting for a new lease on life.

The wait could be long and expensive, perhaps prohibitively so.

MacPhail, 31, of Stratford has been living in Toronto since late January with her mother, Ann MacPhail, and her five-year-old son Keegan.

She is waiting for word of a suitable donor materializing to allow her to receive a potentially life-saving double lung transplant.

MacPhail suffers from systemic scleroderma, a chronic disease that attacks the autoimmune system. The disease causes her scarring and thickening of the lung tissues. She has chronic coughing, extreme shortness of breath, ongoing lung infections, painful arthritis and pulmonary fibrosis.

She hopes a new set of lungs will open the door to a much healthier and productive life.

Her goals range from what is commonplace for most to ambitious, like perhaps pursuing a career as a respiratory technician.

“I have so many plans for the future — to go travelling, to go to the pool swimming with him (Keegan),’’ she said.

But she needs new lungs. And she must wait months, maybe even a year or more, for them.

The daily grind is trying.

She is on oxygen round the clock, 24/7, breathing in through a mask or tubes.

“It’s uncomfortable because the oxygen kind of burns your nose,’’ she said.

“I’m 31 and everybody stares at me. People don’t see that very often. People don’t mean to be rude. I make light of it. I call it my jet fuel.’’

MacPhail hopes to eventually be fueled by new lungs. She has been accepted as a candidate for lung transplant at the Toronto General Hospital.

The program requires MacPhail to live near the hospital. She must participate in a regular exercise program three times per week to help keep her strength up. Her morning regimen at the hospital includes 20 minutes on a treadmill, 20 minutes on a stationary bicycle and a period of lifting weights with her legs and arms.

She also needs to attend the lung transplant clinic once a month to see a respirologist (pulmonologist). She has periodic testing done while she waits for her transplant to determine if her underlying heart function remains stable and to continually monitor her lung disease with CAT scans, chest X-rays and breathing tests.

MacPhail says the experience has been an eye-opener for her mother. MacPhail is part of a community of ill lung transplant hopefuls who celebrate the 27 lung transplants that have taken place at the Toronto General since Jan. 1, but remain anxious for themselves and the others among 45 people currently on the list of lung transplant candidates for the hospital.

“Now she is seeing other people in the same boat as me,’’ said MacPhail.

“She is saying, ‘Now I see how sick you really are’.”

All the while, with little energy to spare, the single mother is trying to maintain as active and normal a life for her son as possible. When Keegan is not attending his morning playgroup or afternoon kindergarten, MacPhail tries to keep him active in sports.

He seems to know he has to go with the flow, says mom.

“He says, ‘I know Mommy we are just here until you get your new lungs’. He’s done fabulous. I couldn’t ask for a better child.’’

MacPhail is managing to deal with the day-to-day demands of her temporary life in Toronto as a lung transplant candidate. What is a growing concern, however, is paying the bills.

Her home province of P.E.I. has not been willing to date to cover her living costs, which she estimates to run close to $2,000 per month.

“I’m starting to feel like it’s not going to happen now,’’ she said of her push to receive assistance from the Prince Edward Island government.

“The point I’m at now is what is going to happen when I’m not able to afford this (living in Toronto)?’’

The province says it is looking into options to provide assistance to people like MacPhail. Dr. Richard Wedge, the provincial director of medical programs, told The Guardian last week that the province is moving towards providing financial assistance for travel and living costs Islanders accrue when travelling off P.E.I. to receive an organ transplant.

He wouldn’t forecast, however, what level of assistance may be provided or when it may be introduced.

Generous donations from family, friends and even total strangers have helped MacPhail cover costs so far. Funds, though, are running low.

The Melissa MacPhail Lung Fund, set up at ScotiaBank, is still accepting donations. Donations can be made in person at any location or by mailing to ScotiaBank, 153 St. Peter’s Rd., PE, C1A 5P6.

Still, MacPhail draws on the support of friends and family to shore up her resolve to find a way to stay in Toronto until she is able to undergo double lung transplant surgery.

“Just talking it out makes you feel a lot better than keeping it in,’’ she said.

“Keegan is my medicine. He is such a happy child. He keeps me going ... and you pray - you pray, too.’’

Brenda Blacquiere of Charlottetown says her best friend is doing her best to manage under the weight of a mountain of burden.

“The toll is great,’’ she said.

“She is under a lot of stress ... she tries very much to live day by day and live positively.’’

Blacquiere says the need for continued fundraising because the government is not stepping up to cover expenses is “very frustrating.’’

She says it would be “devastating’’ if MacPhail did not receive a double lung transplant solely because she ran out of money to stay in Toronto.

Stacey MacPhail of Pleasant Grove is impressed by her sister’s determination in the face of so much adversity.

“She’s got a lot of stress on her but she’s pretty tough through it all,’’ she said.

“She has her up days and her down days.’’

Stacey says while continuing with fundraising remains an option, she notes the public can only be expected to give so much. She says the province needs to step up and help her sister.

Stacey says covering her sister’s monthly expenses to live in Toronto while awaiting the opportunity for a double lung transplant is “a drop in the bucket for the government to provide.’’

She hopes to help pave the road for her sister and “everyone else behind her for this assistance/aid from our government. We need to be on board like the rest of Canada.’’

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant.

Canadian province kicks in for rent of lung transplant patient

People needing out-of-Nova Scotia medical care to get $1,500

Nova Scotian's needing a lung transplant must move to Toronto, over 1,000 miles away, for their life-saving operation. Expenses build up as they remain on the waiting list for donor lungs to become available, sometimes up to a year or more. Congratulations to Louis Brill of the Nova Scotia Lung Association for his compassion and tireless efforts to find some compensation for them.

By JOHN GILLIS Health Reporter
The ChronicalHerald.ca

People who have to spend extended periods outside Nova Scotia to get medical care may now apply for up to $1,500 per month from the province to cover rent.

Marilyn MacKay of Louisdale, Cape Breton, who has been living in the Toronto area since August 2007 awaiting a double lung transplant, will be the first to benefit from the assistance.

Abe Almeda, acting executive director of acute care for the Health Department, said he spoke to Ms. MacKay on Friday and told her the province would send a cheque for her December rent once she provides a receipt and will continue to pay up to $1,500 a month in rent as long as she needs to be away from home.

Ms. MacKay said she and her husband, Ken, felt very encouraged.

"Ken and I were extremely pleased this morning when we heard the news," she said from her niece’s home in Oakville, Ont.

In the fall, Mr. MacKay said the family had spent about $35,000 to keep his wife in Ontario. Despite assistance from the Lung Association of Nova Scotia and others, Mrs. MacKay was considering coming home and giving up her spot on the transplant list because the family was running out of money.

The assistance program is based on a proposal made by the Lung Association to the Health Department earlier this month. Anyone who has had to spend three months or more outside the province to get an insured health service may apply for the funding.

Lung association president Louis Brill, who travelled to Toronto earlier in the year to meet with Ms. MacKay and others in a similar position, said he was pleased Nova Scotia was going to help people facing big costs to get care they can’t get at home.

"We are thrilled (Mr.) d’Entremont has delivered on our proposal," he said in a news release. "We sought assistance for those in need and the government has answered the call."

Mr. Almeda said he believed there were about 10 Nova Scotians awaiting lung transplants in the Toronto area. But he said the help will be available to anyone who had to spend more than three months outside Nova Scotia for care, such as children who need bone marrow transplants.

The assistance will not be retroactive.

In order to provide immediate funding, the program has been created under a "ministerial exception." That means the minister has made the funds available before the creation of a formal policy and cabinet approval.

Mr. Almeda said department staff will meet in January to look at what assistance is offered by other provinces and whether Nova Scotia should help patients with costs other than rent.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

New Brunswick mom needs double lung transplant

"Trina will soon have to undergo an online interview at The Moncton Hospital with staff at Toronto General Hospital. She will then have to go to Toronto for a wide assortment of tests"

by dwayne tingley - Times & Transcript, New Brunswick, Canada

Melissa Rushton often stares at her niece and shakes her head in amazement.

Leah, who turns five next month, is a spinning ball of energy from dawn until bedtime and sometimes beyond. She just started kindergarten at Gunningsville School in Riverview, and it's a good thing because her mother Trina Murray needs those few hours each day just to catch her breath.

Melissa and Trina are sisters. Melissa said yesterday that Leah behaves just like Trina did when she was five-years-old.

"They are the same way -- go, go, go all of the time and I don't know how they do it," Melissa said. "Leah keeps Trina running most of the time. It takes its toll sometimes."

Five years ago, Trina became the first cystic fibrosis sufferer to give birth at The Moncton Hospital. A few months ago, she learned she's going to need a double lung transplant in order to survive.

"In some ways, it's been hard for Trina to see her little girl go to school this year," Melissa said.

"They are always together so it's hard to say goodbye. In another way, it gives her a badly needed break. It's a difficult situation with Trina needing the transplant. The little girl needs her mother."

Trina has had chronic lung infections and pneumonia and she has experienced other breathing difficulties in recent years. Her lungs are not functioning well and her overall condition is in decline.

"She gets winded and she's not able to do much physical activity at all," Melissa said. "Just walking can be difficult sometimes."

Trina will soon have to undergo an online interview at The Moncton Hospital with staff at Toronto General Hospital. She will then have to go to Toronto for a wide assortment of tests.

Officials in Toronto will then tell her when she must move to the Ontario capital so she can be put on a list for the double lung transplant.

"Anyone waiting for this kind of transplant must be within two hours of the hospital or it can't be done on time," Melissa said. "Unfortunately, Toronto is the closest hospital that does this operation."

The process is long, heart-wrenching and expensive.

The family is attempting to raise money to cover the costs of flying Trina to Toronto and her accommodations there. They also hope to send Leah up to Toronto several times so she can be with her mother.

"A lot of people in Albert County are telling us they are going to help because that's where she grew up and that's where most of us still live," Melissa said.

"The people at the (Dawson Settlement) church have helped and the Alma church has donated $200 and a painting for us to sell or put in a basket. We want to have some bake sales, raffles, barbecues, pancake breakfasts or whatever it takes.

"It's hard for us because we've never really done this before. We've got to make this work so Trina can have the operation that's going to save her life."

Anyone looking to assist in fundraising is asked to contact Melissa by e-mail at lungs4trina@gmail.com

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

A short, full life reaches an end

From the Winnipeg Free Press, Canada:

Lung transplants didn't dull his zest

By: Meghan Hurley

CORY Connell spent so much time at the Children's Hospital, the nursing staff started putting him to work.

"They really loved him there. He was there for a long time, so they got to know him really well," his father, Rene Connell, said. "He was like a Tasmanian devil. He was everywhere, so they put him to work."

Connell -- the youngest Canadian and first Manitoban to have a double- lung transplant -- died Sunday, September 7th at the age of 34.

Connell's family remembered him Monday as a fighter who wouldn't give up despite two double-lung transplants.

"It was just amazing. He fell in love, got married and he got to see his nephews and niece born and his brother married, his other brother graduate from university and he never would have seen any of that," said his mother, Joan Wardekker. "My most fond memory was when we had his first transplant. For the first time in his life, he was able to play hockey with his brothers."

Connell's family flipped through old photos Monday night, remembering a man who worried about everyone but himself.

"He was a nucleus that kept a lot of people together because everyone was around him," his stepmother, Denise Connell, said. "He keeps everyone together."

Connell's lungs were severely damaged when he was five years old in a fire he accidentally started while playing with matches.

He spent a long time in the hospital and when he was released, his lungs were in such bad shape that he needed a transplant.

In 1991, Connell's family faced a major dilemma -- they had to come up with a way to pay for daily living expenses in Toronto while their son had his first transplant. That would cost about $40,000 a year for Connell's father, who took an unpaid leave from work to care for his son.

The Winnipeg Free Press established a trust fund named A Chance for Cory to help Connell's family pay for non-medical expenses. Manitobans who donated to the trust fund raised more than $80,000 for the family.

"It was scary, because you put your life on hold for two years," Cornell's father said. "The Free Press and people in Winnipeg made it easier to do that. This sure took a lot of worry and stress out of the situation."

n 1997, Connell had a second double-lung transplant after his body began to reject the new lungs from the first operation.

Shortly before his second operation, he got engaged to a woman he met while they were both selling vacuum cleaners door to door. They got married on Valentine's Day in 1997.

Instead of flowers, donations can be made to the Winnipeg Humane Society.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

Your generosity can save up to eight lives through organ donation and enhance another 50 through cornea and tissue donation

Civitan Club provides affordable housing for lung transplant patients

NOTE: THE FACILITY MENTIONED BELOW NO LONGER EXISTS: FOR POSSIBLE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE WITH HOUSING IN ONTARIO PLEASE CONTACT ANN MCGUIRE: annmcguire@rogers.com or Telephone 416-233-3614.

The Toronto Lung Transplant Civitan Club's major community service project has been to raise enough money to acquire affordable accommodation for out-of-town patients who must live near Toronto General Hospital (Ontario, Canada) while waiting for a lung transplant. Some patients wait for months or years before they get the call for their "Gift of Life". - (read the CBC News Report about the plight of Marilyn MacKay of Nova Scotia who has spent her life savings, over $20,000, waiting in Toronto since August, 2007 for her lung transplant).

I am very happy to report that the Civitan Club's dreams have finally been realized. Linda Lycett and her group have my heartfelt congratulations. I'll let Linda, double-lung recipient, tell the story in her own words:

"Hi Merv
After all these years of fundraising and ripping out our hair, I am happy to let you know that the condo units have finally come to fruition, and we will be housing patients by mid-September.

They are located a block and a half north of #7 Highway on Kipling Avenue in Woodbridge. We got the keys this weekend, and will be going out next week to pick out all the furnishings. We were extemely lucky to have 8 twin beds donated by Kingsdown Bedding and a substantial gift card from Hudson's Bay Company. (We decided on twin beds because the support person is not always a spouse).

Some of the other clubs and the patients have donated dishes, microwaves, etc. and we have also had some very generous monetary donations that we will be able to put directly into the rest of the furnishings. We are going to put a large TV in the living room and one in each bedroom. The common area - kitchen, living room and dining room will be shared, but they will have their own bedrooms and washrooms, running down each side. There is also a laundry room and large balcony in each unit.

This has been very exciting, and although it seems to have been a long time coming and an unbelievable amount of organization and work, it is finally becoming a reality.

Ursula Dignard, the Social Worker with the Lung Transplant Group has been giving patients my name and number to call regarding Rental Applications and we have two couples ready now who are waiting to move in. If you are aware of any patients who are in the process of moving to Toronto and looking for reasonable accommodation, please feel free to have them call me* and I will send them out an application. The rent will be $675.00 and this will include all utilities - hydro, telephone, internet, etc. *(e-mail me for Linda's contact info - Merv.)

If you need any more information, please feel free to get in touch with me at any time, but I thought with your wide range of contacts and patients, you may be able to pass this on for us.
Linda Lycett."

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

Your generosity can save up to eight lives through organ donation and enhance another 50 through cornea and tissue donation

Nova Scotia considers additional funding for out of province transplant patients

From The Chronicle Herald, Halifax, N.S., Canada:

By The Canadian Press

Nova Scotia is considering what it can do to help defer the costs of patients waiting out of province for procedures such as lung transplants, the province's health minister said Thursday.

Chris d'Entremont confirmed the options included looking at additional funding for such things as living expenses.

"We're looking at the numbers right now," d'Entremont told reporters outside the weekly cabinet meeting.

He said a review was underway to determine where money could be found to fund what would be a "drastic policy change" that could cost tens of millions of dollars.

The minister said with thousands of Nova Scotians having to go outside the province for surgeries and treatments tough decisions would have to be made if more help is offered.

"Are we going to cover airline tickets, the hotels or the extended long stays like a double lung transplant recipient? We need to really look at that and really have an idea of what kind of costs and what other programs we're going to maybe have to put on hold in order to cover it."

D'Entremont said that he wasn't sure how long such a review would take, but added that if more help where to become available it wouldn't be in the immediate future.

"We're not ruling it out, but we're taking our time to look at it correctly," he said. "It would probably have to be in another budget year because it is a large item."

Nova Scotia currently pays for operations and medical costs for patients waiting for lung transplants, but only Newfoundland and Labrador covers other items such as travel and accommodations.

The program in that province provides up to $2,200 per month towards a patient's living expenses as well as money to cover air travel so spouses can visit.

Nova Scotia has been feeling heat over the issue after media reports about a double lung transplant patient from Cape Breton who maintains she may have to return home without her operation because of high living expenses in Toronto. (read the CBC News Report about the plight of Marilyn MacKay who has spent her life savings, over $20,000, waiting in Toronto since August, 2007 for her lung transplant)

D'Entremont said the province was continuing to explore ways to help patients through various associations and community fundraising initiatives.

Read a follow-up article in the Aug. 22 issue of The ChronicleHerald.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

Your generosity can save up to eight lives through organ donation and enhance another 50 through cornea and tissue donation

Horseback Charity Ride for children

I always have a soft spot in my heart for initiatives that help provide financial support for organ transplant patients. It's my pleasure to promote Phil and Patty Dawson's efforts to help kids with their medical expenses.

From WTVQ, Lexington, KY:

They are a couple on a mission to help America's children and they are doing it by horseback.

Phil Dawson and his wife Patty were in Lexington Friday. It's the latest stop on their "Ride America" tour.

The couple has taken turns riding their horses Jet and Billy since May 1st, when they left a state park in Idaho on their way to a state park in Richmond, Virginia.

It's a journey of nearly three thousand miles all to raise awareness and money for children who suffer from long term illnesses.

"Those waiting on heart transplants, organ transplants and these are the kids that don't get as much funding to take care of their financial needs, you know their medical finances," says Phil Dawson.

The Dawson's plan to reach Richmond, Virginia sometime in October.

If you want more information about their trip or want to donate money to their cause: American Fundraisers.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network
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In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

Your generosity can save up to eight lives through organ donation and enhance another 50 through cornea and tissue donation

Ontario, Canada creates $500,000 fund for families of patients awaiting organ donation

It is nice to see that the Ontario Government has not only provided help with out-of-town living expenses for families but has also announced details of a program to cover out-of-pocket-expenses for people who agree to become living organ donors.

TORONTO - Ontario families who must temporarily move to another city while a loved one awaits a life-saving organ donation will get some financial help from the province with their living expenses, Health Minister George Smitherman said Monday.

Smitherman announced the creation of a $500,000 annual fund for the Trillium Gift of Life Network - the organization that administers Ontario's organ donor program - to provide direct aid to families who have to spend months living near a hospital waiting for the transplant operation.

"We'll ask Trillium Gift of Life to develop some criteria that will allow us to reach out to provide some direct financial support to ease the burden associated with the disruption that comes from having to move to a transplant centre, in the hope that that page or call will come very quickly," he said.

"We must remain, every single day, focused on those who are on a wait lists, for whom that call cannot come too soon, in the hopes that we can prevent the loss of life for those people who wait for tissue and organ donations."

Trillium president and CEO Frank Markel said 1,600 people in Ontario are waiting for an organ or tissue donation, a reduction of about 100 from last year.

There were 200 deceased organ and tissue donors in Ontario last year - up from 172 in 2006 - that helped save more than 600 lives, Markel said.

"(Trillium) will continue to make crucial strides in increasing the number of lives saved through organ donation," he said.

"We all have the power to save lives."

Manuel Castillo of Mississauga, Ont., whose 15-year-old son Manny died last year after a rugby accident, joined Smitherman and Markel at a news conference to talk about the need for more organ donors, and said he's certain his son would be proud to have helped save five other lives.

"We're so glad about the decision we made to donate Manny's organs," Castillo said.

"For us, it's really healing to know that Manny gave many others a new life, but also it's good to know that after he died, some of his friends already signed a card or talked with their parents about organ donations."

The government also announced details of its program to cover out-of-pocket-expenses for people who agree to become living organ donors. There were 264 living Ontario residents who donated organs or tissue for transplant last year, down from 274 in 2006.

Effectively immediately, people in Ontario who agree to donate an organ or part of an organ can apply to be compensated for travel costs, hotels, meals and even lost income. The program will be retroactive to last August, when Premier Dalton McGuinty first promised up to $5,500 in compensation for living organ donors.

Manitoba and British Columbia already offer similar compensation programs to help living donors cover some of their expenses.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network

Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

Your generosity can save up to eight lives through organ donation and enhance another 50 through tissue donation