May 7, 2013
Showing posts with label Helene Campbell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Helene Campbell. Show all posts
Thursday, May 09, 2013
IABC Names Hélène Campbell Communicator of the Year
Congratulations to Hélène Campbell for receiving this prestigious honor from The International Association of Business Communicators In Ottawa, Canada. Her efforts to increase awareness for organ and tissue donation have had a global impact in a very short time and she has now launched her Give2Live Campaign, which exists to support organ recipients and their families through Transplant Patient & Family Support Fund at the Toronto General Hospital.
May 7, 2013
May 7, 2013
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Double-lung transplant recipient Helene Campbell dances on Ellen show
LOS ANGELES — The Canadian Press
Helene Campbell is discovering that being Canada’s most high-profile organ donor advocate allows her to get up close with some celebrities and very personal with others.
Campbell appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres show Tuesday nearly a year after undergoing a successful double-lung transplant.
The Ottawa native danced onto the stage to the chorus of Baby, a smash from teen pop idol Justin Bieber.
She then revealed that she’d met Bieber, toured his house and taken home a pair of his underwear.
DeGeneres volunteered to sign the white boxers, have Bieber do the same and auction them off to raise money for Campbell’s new charity.
Campbell said the Give2Live foundation will support organ transplant research and help patients and their families.
“It’s such a stressful time waiting for an organ. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever been through,” Campbell said on the show.
“Having received this awesome gift from a donor, I’m just so grateful ... They’ve given me life, and I’ve been through it, so I’m just able to express to people and tell them, ‘this is where it’s at and this is what we can do to help.“’
She said her ultimate goal is to raise enough money to provide housing to those who are awaiting organ transplants.
Campbell shot to international prominence on DeGeneres’s show nearly a year ago during a Skype interview from the apartment in Toronto where she was awaiting surgery.
She suffered from pulmonary fibrosis, a condition that could only be treated through a double transplant.
Campbell has provided regular updates on her condition since the surgery was performed in April, chronicling everything from the challenge of trying to write a book to the frustration of grappling with kidney trouble.
She told DeGeneres her lung function is nearly double what it was immediately after the surgery.
Campbell’s story has drawn attention to the issue of organ donation back home.
The social media campaign she launched before her operation prompted thousands to register as organ donors in her home province, and ultimately came to the attention of the federal health minister.
Last July, the federal health minister, Leona Aglukkaq announced $10 million in funding to support a national transplant research program.
“You Have the Power to Donate Life – Sign-up today! Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Friday, November 02, 2012
Hélène Campbell encourages use of social media
Hélène Campbell is a wonderful example of how just one person's initiative can have an impact on society. I've watched her progress since her first contacts with Justin Bieber and Ellen DeGeneres and the attention she generated for organ donation awareness.(I added the photo which is not part of this Globe and Mail story).
PRESCRIPTIONS FOR HEALTH CARE
PRESCRIPTIONS FOR HEALTH CARE
Transplant hope: Use social media to save lives
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Facebook, double-lung transplant recipient makes push for organ donors
Facebook launched an organ donor tool last May in Britain and the United States and now Canadians will also have access to this organ-donation status tool.
By GLORIA GALLOWAY
OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail
It is through the Internet that millions of people around the world learned the story of Hélène Campbell, the spunky 20-year-old Ottawa woman who received a new set of lungs six months ago.
And it is through the Internet that Ms. Campbell hopes to convince more Canadians to register as organ donors.
She joined federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq and Jordan Banks, the managing director of Facebook Canada, at a news conference on Tuesday where they announced that Canadians will have access to the social media platform’s organ-donation status tool.
Facebook users from Canada who go online to register their willingness to donate their organs will be asked to share news on their Facebook page, the hope being that their friends will then feel compelled to follow suit. If people are not already registered with their provincial donor registry, they can find a link to the official donor registry on their Facebook timeline.
It is a tool that Facebook launched in the United States and Britain in May and has since extended to 12 other countries leading to 275,000 more people to sign up as organ donors.
“I have come to see that through social media the generosity of the human spirit shines through. ‘Sharing Your Organ Donor Status’ through Facebook will grow awareness in Canada, giving hope to those waiting on a life-saving transplant. Today, that light shines brighter,” said Ms. Campbell in a release issued at the news conference.
A recent study in the scientific journal Nature found that activity on Facebook can actively influence decisions offline.
If anyone in Canada knows the power of social networking sites to promote organ donations, it is Ms. Campbell.
At her prompting, pop star Justin Bieber tweeted his support for organ donation last January. She won the hearts of millions in February when she appeared, via Skype, on the Ellen DeGeneres show. And she has become a YouTube darling with hundreds of thousands of hits on the video-sharing website.
Ms. DeGeneres was so moved by her story she has promised to fly her to Los Angeles so the two can dance together on her show. And a video Ms. Campbell sent to Ms. DeGeneres of her dancing after her recuperation has inspired schools, hospitals and others promoting organ donations to do the “Hélène Campbell dance.”
Every time she made news – after the Bieber tweet, after the DeGeneres show, after Hélène Campbell Day was declared in Ottawa, and after her surgery – organ donor registrations spiked in Ontario.
“Social media is a key tool for creating a culture of donation in Ontario. The success of our existing social sharing tools, such as The Gift of 8 Movement at www.BeADonor.ca, demonstrates that people are more likely to make the decision to register when inspired by people they know,” said Ronnie Gavsie, the president of the Trillium Gift of Life Network in Ontario.
“We’re very excited that Facebook has chosen to highlight the importance of organ and tissue donation,” said Ms. Gavsie, “and encourage Canadian Facebook users to display their choice on their timeline.” Millions of people are waiting for a heart, kidney, liver or lung transplant that could potentially save their lives and many die because a suitable donor cannot be found in time. This video explains how the Facebook tool works.
“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today! Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
By GLORIA GALLOWAY
OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail
It is through the Internet that millions of people around the world learned the story of Hélène Campbell, the spunky 20-year-old Ottawa woman who received a new set of lungs six months ago.
And it is through the Internet that Ms. Campbell hopes to convince more Canadians to register as organ donors.
She joined federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq and Jordan Banks, the managing director of Facebook Canada, at a news conference on Tuesday where they announced that Canadians will have access to the social media platform’s organ-donation status tool.
Facebook users from Canada who go online to register their willingness to donate their organs will be asked to share news on their Facebook page, the hope being that their friends will then feel compelled to follow suit. If people are not already registered with their provincial donor registry, they can find a link to the official donor registry on their Facebook timeline.
It is a tool that Facebook launched in the United States and Britain in May and has since extended to 12 other countries leading to 275,000 more people to sign up as organ donors.
“I have come to see that through social media the generosity of the human spirit shines through. ‘Sharing Your Organ Donor Status’ through Facebook will grow awareness in Canada, giving hope to those waiting on a life-saving transplant. Today, that light shines brighter,” said Ms. Campbell in a release issued at the news conference.
A recent study in the scientific journal Nature found that activity on Facebook can actively influence decisions offline.
If anyone in Canada knows the power of social networking sites to promote organ donations, it is Ms. Campbell.
At her prompting, pop star Justin Bieber tweeted his support for organ donation last January. She won the hearts of millions in February when she appeared, via Skype, on the Ellen DeGeneres show. And she has become a YouTube darling with hundreds of thousands of hits on the video-sharing website.
Ms. DeGeneres was so moved by her story she has promised to fly her to Los Angeles so the two can dance together on her show. And a video Ms. Campbell sent to Ms. DeGeneres of her dancing after her recuperation has inspired schools, hospitals and others promoting organ donations to do the “Hélène Campbell dance.”
Every time she made news – after the Bieber tweet, after the DeGeneres show, after Hélène Campbell Day was declared in Ottawa, and after her surgery – organ donor registrations spiked in Ontario.
“Social media is a key tool for creating a culture of donation in Ontario. The success of our existing social sharing tools, such as The Gift of 8 Movement at www.BeADonor.ca, demonstrates that people are more likely to make the decision to register when inspired by people they know,” said Ronnie Gavsie, the president of the Trillium Gift of Life Network in Ontario.
“We’re very excited that Facebook has chosen to highlight the importance of organ and tissue donation,” said Ms. Gavsie, “and encourage Canadian Facebook users to display their choice on their timeline.” Millions of people are waiting for a heart, kidney, liver or lung transplant that could potentially save their lives and many die because a suitable donor cannot be found in time. This video explains how the Facebook tool works.
“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today! Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register
New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand
South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/
United States, donatelife.net
United Kingdom, register at NHS 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.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Hélène Campbell dances after double-lung transplant
I watched Hélène's news conference and was in awe of the way she looked after only 7 weeks post double-lung transplant. With great composure she showed that she is a gifted and articulate speaker as she told her story and fielded questions with enthusiasm. CTV News provided full coverage of the conference and posted a story on the web. Watch the CTV Video and read the story.
“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today! Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
 |
| Hélène dances with Dr. Shaf Keshavjee, Director of the Toronto Lung Transplant Program and her mother Manon
Hélène was diagnosed with IPF or Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis last October and received her double-lung transplant April 6, 2012. Her discharge date was Friday, May 4, 2012 but she was re-admitted briefly with shortness of breath and has since been doing very well. She gained world-wide awareness for organ and tissue donation when Justin Bieber and Ellen DeGeneres responded to her twitter campaign. She did a Skype appearance with Ellen today who invited her to appear in person on the show when she is able to travel. See coverage of Hélène's 6-minute chat with Ellen in this Toronto Sun article with photo.
Watch videos of this and other appearances at alungstory.
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“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today! Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register
New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand
South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/
United States, donatelife.net
United Kingdom, register at NHS 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.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Canadian PM awards Hélène Campbell Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal
Harper says she is receiving this honor for her courage and her tremendous work in raising awareness for organ donation. "She has been a great inspiration to many Canadians and people have seen her worldwide."
Hélène was diagnosed with IPF or Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis last October and received her double-lung transplant April 6, 2012. Her discharge date was Friday, May 4, 2012 but she was re-admitted briefly with shortness of breath and has since been doing very well. She gained world-wide awareness for organ and tissue donation when Justin Bieber and Ellen DeGeneres responded to her twitter campaign. Read updates at alungstory.
Hélène will also be holding a press conference in Toronto today.
“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today! Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register
New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand
South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/
United States, donatelife.net
United Kingdom, register at NHS 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.
Monday, May 07, 2012
Hélène Campbell discharged from hospital
Hélène posted on her twitter feed that she's back at her home away from home in Toronto and feels wonderful. She received her transplant Friday, April 6, 2012 and her discharge date was Friday, May 4, 2012.
Hélène is released from hospital to her "home away from home" in Toronto.
“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today! Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Hélène says she worked out on the bike in physiotherapy and it was an amazing feeling to be able to exercise without oxygen.
Congratulations and best wishes to Hélène for continued good health and an optimal outcome to her recovery.
Lung transplant patients are required to be near the hospital as outpatients for three months following their discharge and to attend physiotherapy sessions three times a week. I had my lung transplant ten years ago at Toronto General Hospital and I'm certain that the physiotherapy played a huge role in my recovery and I've joined a gym and continue it to this day.
Congratulations and best wishes to Hélène for continued good health and an optimal outcome to her recovery.
Lung transplant patients are required to be near the hospital as outpatients for three months following their discharge and to attend physiotherapy sessions three times a week. I had my lung transplant ten years ago at Toronto General Hospital and I'm certain that the physiotherapy played a huge role in my recovery and I've joined a gym and continue it to this day.
“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today! Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register
New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand
South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/
United States, donatelife.net
United Kingdom, register at NHS 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.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Hélène Campbell's campaign cited in obit as inspiration for giving
By Barbara Turnbull
Life Reporter The Toronto Star
Hélène Campbell is making such great progress after her double lung transplant on April 6, and has even been seen dancing to Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend," says her mother, Manon Campbell.
ALUNGSTORY.COM
As Hélène Campbell continues to make remarkable progress from her recent double lung transplant, the organ donation crusader’s pleas for people to save others is being heard loud and clear.
At a press conference Tuesday at Toronto General Hospital, where the 21-year-old Ottawa woman is recovering, her father read from an obituary from 10 days ago.
“Terry’s wish to donate his organs was inspired by @alungstory Helene’s organ donation campaign,” the death notice read.
“Wow,” said a visibly moved Alan Campbell. “An immediate impact.”
He went on to thank his daughter’s donor, whose identity is unknown to the Campbells but hopes the family’s “message of deep and abiding appreciation will reach them, even as they grieve the loss of their loved one.”
“My daughter has life because of that gift,” he said.
Hélène Campbell drew attention to the issue of organ and tissue donation when she was placed on the transplant list in January. She’d been diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in October, a disease that can only be treated with a transplant.
With compelling video appeals and a Twitter campaign (@alungstory), she gained celebrity support from Justin Bieber, Ellen DeGeneres and others. Before her transplant, Campbell was also Skyping into stops along a province-wide awareness campaign, torchoflife.com, a 75-day, 110-stop journey aiming to register 1 million new donors in Ontario.
Hélène had a life-saving lung transplant on April 6, and is making excellent progress, said transplant surgeons Dr. Shaf Keshavjee and Dr. Tom Waddell. She is dancing during physio, breathing more on her own and could be discharged from hospital within two weeks.
“She’s beginning to dance already to music and does the treadmill to music,” her mother, Manon, said. “The first song this morning was Justin Bieber’s (If I Were Your) “Boyfriend,” so you can imagine the arms going up.”
Waddell, lead surgeon during the seven-hour procedure, says Campbell passed the first night without help from the ventilator. “This is definitely a major milestone moving forward,” he says. “She will soon be able to completely breathe on her own.”
Since the transplant, there have been good days and bad, Hélène’s mother notes. Communication remains a challenge, as the tracheotomy performed last week (a hole surgically made in Campbell’s throat for the ventilator) prevents her voice from being heard.
Her team expects she will be moved from the Intensive Care Unit to a step-down unit within two days. And she could leave the hospital in as little as two weeks, Waddell says. But Hélène will likely have to stay in Toronto for a few weeks.
“What makes her happiest is when she hears the positive stories of how this message is going across,” Manon Campbell says, referring to the thousands who have been registering with the province’s beadonor.ca site.
Keshavjee, director of the lung transplant programs at the United Health Network and the Hospital for Sick Children, hailed Campbell’s transplant as one of the more courageous procedures — even though they perform this type of surgery 10 times a month.
Typically a recipient is matched with a donor through blood type and body size, but because Hélène, a very small size, was going downhill so quickly, they used the lungs of a larger donor, Waddell says.
“We chose to use a bigger donor because we didn’t feel Hélène had much time left to wait for somebody more like her own size,” he says. Instead of transplanting the entire lungs, which is normally done, they used the left upper lobe and the right lower and middle lobes.
“From a technical, surgical point of view, that would add complexity,” he says.
Campbell’s motivation, with the excellent physiotherapy, is one of the major keys to her success.
“Almost from the first day she was getting exercise,” Waddell says. “On subsequent days, even while on a respirator, she was walking on a treadmill. I think that’s a critical component to people not only returning to healthy, functioning lungs but to a quality of life.”
When asked if her daughter has message, Manon said simply: “Beadonor.ca.”
“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register
New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand
South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/
United States, donatelife.net
United Kingdom, register at NHS 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.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Organ donations up thanks to 'Hélène Campbell effect'
BY MIKE AUBRY OTTAWA SUN
Registrations for organ donations in Ottawa have skyrocketed by more than 8,000 since December, and the Trillium Gift of Life Network(TGLN) attributes it to the " Hélène Campbell effect."
"People are inspired when they can relate to the individual who is talking to them," said TGLN president and CEO Ronnie Gavsie.
"It becomes a personal ask and this is
Hélène's personal ask and Ottawa has responded."
Campbell is the 21-year-old Barrhaven woman who raised awareness for organ donations across the world while she battled a degenerative lung disease.
She received a double lung transplant in a Toronto hospital on April 6 after her campaign caught the attention of celebrities including Ellen Degeneres and pop sensation Justin Bieber through her Twitter account @alungstory.
Registration numbers jumped by 2% since Campbell launched her public crusade, and Gavsie said that's significant because it takes 115,000 registration to move the dial one percentage point.
April is National Organ and Tissue Awareness month, and to increase that personal connection with donors, the TGLN has launched the Gift of 8 Movement.
It's a quasi-social network service where people can make profile pages to share their stories and inspire their friends to register to donate their organs and tissues.
Log on to beadonor.ca to join the network.
"When you have a page, it becomes a personal ask, and you're asking your friends and your colleagues and your neighbours to register consent," said Gavsie.
The site lets you choose a default message or you can write your own, and you can even set a goal for how many registrations you'd like to have come through your page.
When it comes registering donors, small communities in Ontario are way ahead of their urban peers.
Donor registrations in Northern Ontario are the highest, ranging between 30 and 49%, while dense urban populations in the Greater Toronto area are stagnant, from less than 10% in Scarborough and Vaughan to less than 19% in the rest of Toronto.
Gavsie said it's because there's greater community engagement in rural towns.
"In the North, we see smaller, very close-knit communities and cohesive neighborhoods where if one person is touched by the need for a transplant many people in the community know about it an they rally," she said.
The TGLN hopes the Gift of 8 Movement will broaden the scope of registrations.
Gavsie would love to see an Ottawa Senator's (ice hockey) team page with each of their stories about organ transplants that have touched them,
Ontario residents can see how their community compares at the following link https://beadonor.ca/communities
“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register
New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand
South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/
United States, donatelife.net
United Kingdom, register at NHS 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.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Double lung transplant recipient Hélène Campbell suffers setback
When I was recovering from my lung transplant due to pulmonary fibrosis (the same disease as Hélène Campbell) I experienced the same "setbacks" she's going through. Breathing tubes, lung infection, etc. but the medical team at Toronto General Hospital was right on top of it and pulled me through wonderfully and I've no doubt they will do the same for her.
Hélène Campbell received a double lung transplant on Friday, April 6, 2012.
CTV News
Hélène Campbell, a Canadian double lung transplant recipient and online organ donation crusader, suffered a setback in her recovery, her mother said on her daughter's 21st birthday.
In an update Wednesday, Manon Campbell said Hélène was again hooked to a ventilator Sunday in Toronto General Hospital after she experienced trouble breathing.
Manon Campbell said in a post on her daughter's A Lung Story website that doctors decided to perform a tracheostomy — an opening in the neck — to facilitate chest physiotherapy, deep breathing, coughing and suctioning.
She also said her daughter is taking antibiotics for a lung infection and is being treated with extra doses of steroids for an early onset of organ rejection, which she said is not uncommon for transplant patients.
This comes after a week Campbell's family described as a "roller-coaster ride."
Campbell continues 'to be positive'
On Saturday, Campbell took to Twitter to announce she is breathing on her own for the first time after her double-lung transplant on April 6.
"Despite the medical ups and down, Hélène continues to participate very actively in her care," wrote Manon Campbell.
"We witnessed some of her first dance moves, bobbing her head and shoulders to the tune of Walking on Broken Glass by Annie Lennox today. She daily displays persistence, patience and perseverance continuing to be positive. She even perceives the tracheostomy as a welcomed birthday present as she celebrates her twenty first birthday today."
Campbell achieved fame using her Twitter account @alungstory to raise awareness about organ donation. Her campaign caught the attention of celebrities including teen pop star Justin Bieber and U.S. talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres, who had Campbell on her show via Skype in February to discuss organ donation.
Campbell's Twitter account now has more than 13,000 followers.
Campbell had been waiting for the transplant surgery since last July, when she discovered she had idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a degenerative lung disease, after collapsing on a hiking trail.
She moved in January from the Ottawa neighbourhood of Barrhaven to Toronto with her mother while her father and three siblings remained in the Ottawa area.
“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register
New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand
South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/
United States, donatelife.net
United Kingdom, register at NHS 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.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Organ donation crusader Hélène Campbell cherry-picks her next target
By Barbara Turnbull, Life Reporter, The Toronto Star
Hélène Campbell and The Hunger Games' Josh Hutcherson at the Toronto premiere of the movie. The Ottawa woman, who is on the transplant waitlist for new lungs, is on a crusade to increase donor registrations nationally.
CAMPBELL FAMILY PHOTOHélène Campbell has set her sights on a national scope to increase organ and tissue donation registration.
This time she’s going after Don Cherry and Hockey Night in Canada.
Campbell, who suffers from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, came to the public’s attention in January, shortly after being placed on the waitlist for a double lung transplant. The Ottawa woman, who now lives in Toronto to be close to General Hospital, had started an awareness campaign and got Justin Bieber to tweet his support. Donor registrations started climbing immediately, with 1,760 new registrations in Ontario the next week.
The 20-year-old then targeted Ellen DeGeneres, and was surprised with a Skype appearance during a taping of the talk show, where DeGeneres declared her belief in organ donation and told Campbell she would to fly her to Los Angeles as soon as she can travel after her transplant. Meanwhile, DeGeneres arranged for Campbell to attend Monday’s Canadian premiere of The Hunger Games in Toronto.
After the Feb. 16 appearance on Ellen, 5,027 registered the next week in Ontario alone.
Before Campbell started her campaign, there were typically 50 online registrations a day at Ontario’s beadonor.ca.
The daily average has been about 180 since, which is giving hope and joy for future recipients, Campbell says. The province also has an online campaign running currently, which is helping impact the numbers, but there’s no denying the power of social media and celebrity.
That’s where Twitter newcomer Don Cherry comes in to the picture.
Campbell’s Twitter @alungstory account is approaching 10,000 followers who are now after Cherry to bring the awareness crusade to Coach’s Corner to help “ice the shortage.”
But why Cherry?
“A different demographic and it’s across Canada,” Campbell says. “It reaches the demographic of people who have actually signed donor cards, but they need to know that’s not enough.
“I want them to register online and just talk about it with their families,” she adds. “Encourage people to have the talk once, just have a discussion about it. A lot of people are afraid to talk about (death). Why not do it now and be done?”
Trillium Gift of Life Network, the provincial agency mandated with organizing organ and tissue donation and transplant, just announced Ontario’s registration rate is now at 21 per cent. That’s up from 2009’s 18 per cent, but there is much to do to make a true difference for the 1,500 waiting for life-saving organ transplants in Ontario at any given time. By comparison, the U.S. has 35 per cent of its citizens registered on online lists.
Campbell recently suffered her own setback. She got “the call” on March 11, at 3:30 a.m. that there was a match. She and her mother made frantic phone calls, having difficulty rousing the family.
“I’d been told before that there was such a thing as a false alarm,” she told the Star. “I told myself ‘Don’t think about this too, too much, it could be a false alarm.’ I was prepared if it was and I was prepared if it wasn’t.”
The transplant was cancelled a few hours later when it was deemed the lungs were not suitable.
Although not the outcome she had hoped for, Campbell was able to attend Monday night’s premiere of The Hunger Games, which she would have missed if the surgery had gone ahead.
“I met Liam (Hemsworth) and Josh (Hutcherson), who play Peeta and Gale,” Campbell says. “I got pictures with them and I got signatures.
“My last name is Campbell and my joke is ‘I Campbell-ieve it.’”
But the advancing illness has her feeling “not the best,” she admits.
“My energy is lower and my coughing has picked up,” she says. “Overall I feel kind of crummy. But there’s not much I can do about it, it’s part of this. So you just embrace what you have and keep going.”
Her lung capacity, shrinking from the disease she was diagnosed with last October, now sits at 20 per cent. “It’s a scary number because it just keeps getting smaller, but you don’t dwell on it. The only thing that trumps fear is hope.”
So it’s back to her awareness campaign. She gets strength from what the numbers tell her.
“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”
Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register
New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand
South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/
United States, donatelife.net
United Kingdom, register at NHS 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.
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