Tragic End For Transplant Campaigner Jessica

I was very sorry to hear that Jessica died before receiving her transplant. Last October I did a post about Jess and the stars who turned out to perform for a fundraising benefit. At the time her lung capacity was only 11 percent but she continued to have hope and remain positive. My condolences go to Jessica and her friends and family.

Transplant campaigner Jessica Wales. Picture: Live Life Then Give Live

Mark Langford, Sky News Online

A woman whose campaign for awareness during a four-year wait for a double lung transplant won the support of celebrities has died.

Cystic fibrosis sufferer Jessica Wales died in hospital, aged 20, just weeks after a suitable donor was found.

Jessica, of Westgate-on-Sea, Kent, initially impressed doctors with her progress but her condition steadily deteriorated and she was eventually sedated and placed on a ventilator.

The battle to find a donor drew support from celebrities, including singer Natalie Imbruglia and comic Ed Byrne who performed at a gig last October called Save Jess-tival

Other stars who backed the campaign on Twitter included Prime Minister's wife Sarah Brown, singer Beverley Knight, Jonathan Ross and Rubens Barrichello.
Ms Wales defied doctors' expectations after being given just two years to live in 2005 when she was listed for a donor. She used a non-invasive ventilator at night to keep her lungs going.

Friends said that despite her suffering she worked tirelessly to raise awareness about organ donation and transplantation.

The Live Life Then Give Life transplant charity said: "During this period, she showed great courage and determination, inspiring people across the country through her relentless campaigning and upbeat attitude.

"Jess was not only a valued Live Life Then Give Life advocate, but also a great friend to many and we offer her family our sincere condolences at this sad time.

"We will continue to campaign for all those who wait for an organ transplant and, whilst not every outcome will be what we would wish, we hope that one day all those who need a transplant will get it when they are fittest and it is most likely to have a good long-term outcome."

“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.

1,200 sign up to UK newspaper's organ donor appeal

This initiative by a UK newspaper to encourage people to register to be an organ donor is a great idea and one I hope will be taken up by newspapers everywhere.

Megan Thomas, left, and Tania Sinclair, mother of Sam Sinclair, hand out organ donor registration cards before York City’s game against Mansfield

By Jennifer Bell The Press

IT is a quest which can make the difference between life and death – and it has had an incredible start.

A month to the day after The Press launched its Lifesavers, more than 1,000 people have answered our call to help.

We are aiming to secure the support of 20,000 people across York and North and East Yorkshire in joining the Organ Donor Register by the end of this year – a move which will spare so many families the heartache of losing a loved one.

New figures now show 1,220 people from this region have signed up since the organ donation drive began exactly one month ago.

Across our circulation area, 245,326 people are now on the NHS Organ Donor Register – but despite this astonishing instant response, we still need more people to sign up and save somebody’s life.

Craig Taylor, spokesman for NHS Blood and Transplant, said the number who have added their names to the register since the launch is a fantastic achievement, and has called on others to follow their example and help the campaign reach its vital goal.

“Readers of The Press have shown great commitment to organ donation by joining the NHS organ donor register since the start of the campaign – if you’ve signed up, thank you,” he said.

“But there is still an urgent need for those who believe in organ donation to act now.

“By joining you will be offering hope to those who are waiting for a life changing transplant.

“Make it one of your 2010 New Year’s resolutions.”

Our campaign – inspired by 22-year-old Miss York finalist and cystic fibrosis sufferer Emma Young who died whilst awaiting a double lung transplant – aims to ease the agony for thousands of people on the UK organ donor transplant list.

There are currently 81 people waiting for a transplant in our circulation area.

Of those, 62 need a kidney; a further three people are awaiting a kidney and pancreas, six people are awaiting a heart, three people are awaiting a liver, six people need a new lung and one person needs a new pancreas.

Since April, 68 people have received a transplant – but in this time four other have died awaiting a lifesaving organ to be donated.

Joanne Turner, donor transplant co-ordinator at York Hospital, said: “If you are thinking about organ donation or support the idea, show it and put your name on the register.”

Steve Hughes, managing editor of The Press, said: “This is an impressive start to the campaign, especially over the busy festive period. “Having an extra 1,220 people on the Organ Donor Register means more families will be spared the needless agony of losing a loved one due to a lack of suitable donors.

“Now we need to use this as a springboard and make 2010 a landmark year for organ donation in our region."


York City fans show their support
FOOTBALL fans were encouraged to sign up to the Organ Donor Register when forms were handed out at York City’s ground.

The promotions drive took place ahead of City’s Blue Square Premier match at home to Mansfield on Boxing Day, and the cause was also publicised in the match programme.

The event was organised by family and friends of Sam Sinclair, a local 19-year-old woman who died in November, following diabetes complications. Simon Mallett, one of those who organised the hand-out, said beforehand: “I just thought this would be a nice thing to do.”


HOW YOU CAN JOIN THE REGISTER
You can join the NHS Organ Donor Register by:

• Going online at http//www.organdonation.nhs.uk

• Phoning the 24-hour donor line on 0300 123 23 23.

• Texting SAVE to 84118.

You can also join when you:

• Register for a driving licence.

• Register at a GP surgery.

• Register for a European Health Insurance Card. (EHIC)

• Apply for a Boots Advantage card.

• Leaflets have also been sent to every shop or outlet that sells The Press, and are also displayed in GPs surgeries, libraries and many hospitals and pharmacies.

“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.

More doctors turning to animals for tissue transplants

By Maureen McFadden WNDU.com

One in 20 people will need some kind of tissue transplant in their lifetime, and more surgeons are turning to animals for help.

Whether they've lost an ear to a bomb or their hearing to old age, medicine is crossing the species boundary to unlock the secrets of disease and re-grow what was lost.

The animals in Dr. Joseph Vacanti's lab are on the cutting edge of regenerative medicine.

We actually used human cartilage cells in a human ear shape and then on the back of this mouse, the human cartilage cells grew into a human ear,” says Dr. Vacanti, chief of pediatric surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital for Children in Boston.

Within a year, he plans to re-grow an ear on a human in a similar way.

“We can give somebody back their own face that's been either ravaged by cancer or destroyed by a terrible accident or injured by war,” he says.

Pigs are huge helpers when it comes to healing.

“Believe it or not, their genetic makeup is pretty close to humans,” says Dr. Samer Mattar, bariatric surgeon at Clarian Bariatrics in Indianapolis.

Surgeons use material made from the pig's small intestines to repair torn muscles caused by hernias. Pig powder is re-growing severed fingers at the University of Pittsburgh.

“The simplest applications involve just being able to spread a powder or a particular form of the powder on the wound site so it can affect the wound healing process,” says Dr. Steve Badylak, director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Pittsburgh.

From land to the sea, fish are helping scientists fix hearing disorders.

If zebra fish lose hearing, they naturally re-grow new auditory cells. Scientists are studying the genetic process to restore hearing in humans. Doctors hope to eventually end deafness.

Animals are advancing medicine and teaching humans better ways of healing.

According to research found in the Journal of Transplantation, transplants from pigs might actually be safer than transplants from humans in the long run.

Experts say humans and zebra fish share about 80% of the same genes.

“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.

UK Surrogate mother becomes pregnant to help lung transplant woman

Brighton woman to be surrogate mother for the eighth time

By Siobhan Ryan, Health Reporter The Argus

A surrogate mother is believed to have become pregnant for the eighth time after agreeing to come out of “retirement” to help another family.

Jill Hawkins is said to be ecstatic after discovering one of two embryos implanted into her body had started to grow.

Miss Hawkins, 45, from Brighton, had said she would have no more children following the birth of her seventh surrogate baby in 2006.

However she agreed to help a professional couple in their early 30s when she discovered the wife, a mother-of-one, was unable to become pregnant again because of drugs she had to take after a lung transplant.

It is the first time Miss Hawkins is carrying a child that has not developed from her own eggs.

All the previous children she has given away have been conceived using her own eggs and artificially inseminated sperm from the father.

Miss Hawkins, who will be paid £12,000 by the couple, says there is a chance she may be carrying twins.

When the baby, or babies, are born, she will hand them over to the parents while still in hospital.

She says she has no desire to keep a baby and will continue to act as a surrogate.

Miss Hawkins, a legal secretary, is the most prolific surrogate mother in Britain.

“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.

Run the NYC Half-Marathon with The Fresh Air Fund!

On March 21st, the Fresh Air Fund-Racers will take to the streets at the NYC Half-Marathon! Thank you to the Fresh Air Fund-Racers and their supporters for participating in this world class event. You are making a huge difference in the lives of thousands of Fresh Air children!

One of my favorite charities is the Fresh Air Fund that makes it possible for boys and girls, six to 12 years old, who reside in low-income communities in New York City to enjoy the experience of spending two weeks of life outside the city each summer. Not only is the New York City Half-Marathon a major fundraiser for the Fresh Air Fund, it is also a very popular event that is sold-out every year.

Participants in this year's event were chosen by lottery and the winners were announced Wednesday. But as Sara Wilson, Outreach Coordinator for the Fresh Air Fund notes in her memo, there is still a chance for those who missed out on the lottery. Also, some runners may be eligible for a guaranteed entry into the NYC Half-Marathon based on time standards, charity programs and other criteria. Click here for info.

"Hi Merv

Happy 2010! Hope all is well.

I have updated information on the NYC 1/2 Marathon. The NYC lottery closed last night and winners were announced today. The FAF team still has spots available and think interested runners will start researching teams to join if they didn't win a coveted lottery spot. We would be appreciated if you could mention this in an upcoming post or tweet if there is an interest.

Readers can sign up/research further at the Registration Page.

Please let me know if there is any interest.

Cheers!
Sara"

“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.

The best Christmas presents aren’t found under the tree

Posted By Angelica Blenich The Echo, Haliburton County

The sun's refusal to come out of hiding this past summer left many Haliburton residents dismayed, especially those who own cottages that can only be enjoyed for a short period of time. Heather Coneybeare however, was more than thrilled with the grey weather.

"I'm supposed to stay out of the sun," laughs Coneybeare, "so while everyone was complaining about the lack of sunshine we received this past summer for me it was great."

Last December Coneybeare was the recipient of a liver transplant and several blood transfusions. After spending three months in a hospital bed she was released this past February with some strict rules to follow, such as staying out of the sun. This year Coneybeare will be celebrating a much different Christmas with her family thanks to the selfless generosity of people she had never before met.

"I feel great," says Coneybeare. "I got to do the Christmas shopping this year and be a part of the neighborhood Christmas events. Just in general it's nice to be back home and doing the things I should be doing. There's things that take me longer to do," she says, "like cleaning the house. The energy level isn't there. But considering what kind of shape I was in before Christmas last year, there are things I can now do, like cook a turkey dinner."

In between wrapping presents for her daughter and celebrating the Christmas season with friends and family, Coneybeare will also be finding the time to advocate for a cause that she holds close to her heart, or more literally her liver.

"I got a call from Peterborough from the blood donor clinic," she says, "and I'm hoping to be able to go to their clinic as well as Bancroft's. They've asked me to come and help tell people about how important it is to have their blood donated. I certainly hope through my experience people will realize that miracles do happen," says Coneybeare, "and that it might make them more likely to consider donating."

The blood transfusions that Coneybeare received, six in total, were just part in parcel with her liver transplant. She is appreciative of both the blood and the organ she is now storing safely in her body.

"I don't ever mind talking about my experience because you never know who it could happen to next," she says. "What I hope comes out of my experience is that other people can see the benefit of it all and the appreciation of the fact that without these people, people like myself wouldn't be here. I'm so thankful for people who support blood and organ donation."

Coneybeare still does not know any of the details pertaining to her donor. Although she completed an appreciation letter for the donor family, she merely submitted it to Toronto General, the hospital responsible for the transplant surgery, who sent it on her behalf.

"It's still the issue of someone having had to die so that I could live," says Coneybeare when discussing the need to respect one's wishes for privacy. "It took a while to get my head around that one."

The truth of this matter can make the decision to donate an organ that much more traumatic for family members.

"I know it's a difficult time [when someone loses a loved one] to actually say you would donate an organ but they are needed," she says. "It's just an issue that is hard for some people to wrap their head around. A common misconception is that a donated organ has to come from a family member. An organ can come from almost anyone."

According to a new study published by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), despite an increase in organ donations over the past number of years, Canada still has a long way to go.

While the availability of donated organs in Canada rose by more than 28 per cent over the past decade, this increase is not keeping pace with demand. Last year, about 215 Canadians died while waiting for an organ transplant. The study goes on to state that the number of living donors has exceeded the number of deceased donors for the past eight years and accounts for 69 per cent of the increase in donors over the past decade. In contrast, the rate of deceased donors' organs has not risen as quickly.

A deceased donor can provide up to six organs for transplantation. On average, however, 3.6 organs per deceased donor were transplanted in 2008.

"The need for transplantable organs has never been greater," explains Dr. John Gill, associate professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia, a division of Nephrology at St. Paul's hospital in Vancouver, throughout the study. "The option of organ and tissue donation should be offered to all patients who die in Canadian hospitals and should be incorporated as an essential component of end-of-life care."

For Coneybeare, it was literally a matter of life or death.

"There are still people in need of transplants dying," says Coneybeare. "It's important to donate, it's a gift of life."

“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.

'Give our little girl the gift of life in 2010'

Paris Cowens with her parents James Jones and Tammy Cowens at their home in Lidget Green

By Claire Lomax The Telegraph & Argus

The family of a little girl who needs a new liver are calling on the people of Bradford to make joining the organ donor register their new year resolution.

Paris Cowens, who celebrated her first birthday on November 25, is one of 10,000 people in the UK who need an organ transplant.

While online and phone sign-ups to the organ donor register quadrupled in November 2009, compared to the same month in 2008, more must be done, with three people dying every day while they wait for an organ to become available.

Little Paris has a condition called biliary atresia which only affects about 50 babies born in England and Wales each year. It means the bile duct to her liver is blocked causing bile to build up in the liver, which poisons it.

As a result, Paris, who is under the care of the paediatric liver team at St James’s Hospital in Leeds, is jaundiced, has a swollen stomach and is frequently admitted to hospital because of complications caused by the disease.

She was diagnosed shortly after birth at Bradford Royal Infirmary and underwent an operation in a bid to unblock the ducts. But the operation was unsuccessful and complications set in. She was placed on the transplant list in October and is now waiting for a new liver to become available to save her life.

A pager goes everywhere with whoever is caring for Paris, who lives in Hollingwood Avenue, Lidget Green, with her grandmother Sandra Jones and her partner Paul Rushworth and her parents Tammy Cowens and James Jones.

Mrs Jones said: “It is just a waiting game really. Even if a liver comes up it all depends on who is also waiting and who it is most suitable for.”

The family have all joined the organ donor register and although he is not a blood relation Mr Rushworth offered to undergo tests earlier this year to see if he could become a living donor for Paris.

Doctors have said Paris was too little for this option but Mrs Jones added: “Paris has put some weight on so we are hoping we can try to get something done soon.

“In the meantime we would call on everyone to consider putting their name on the organ donor register.”

Sally Johnson, director of organ donation and transplantation at NHS Blood and Transplant said: “Rather than making what can often be an unachievable and unfulfilling resolution, this year we’re calling on everyone to do something that could make all the difference in the world and save someone’s life.

“If we are to help the 10,000 patients in need of a transplant and prevent three people needlessly dying every day due to a lack of organs, we need many more people to join the NHS Organ Donor Register and discuss their decision with the people closest to them.”

“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.

Winnipeg senior finds guardian angel in kind-hearted U.S. businessman

This has nothing to do with organ and tissue donation but I was so touched by this story of kindness by an American man to a Canadian woman in distress that I wanted to share it with my readers. But the more I think of it, people who donate organs and tissues so others can live are guardian angels too.

By Mary Agnes Welch

WINNIPEG - It started out as the flight from hell.

On her way home from Christmas spent with her daughter in Corpus Christi, Tex., 80-year-old Elsie Clark found herself stranded in a deserted corner of the Dallas-Fort Worth airport Wednesday.

Clark has trouble with her hip and asked to be taken by wheelchair to her connecting gate, but she was dumped at the wrong one. By the time she found someone to help her, she'd missed her flight to Winnipeg.

With nary an apology -- even though Clark was in tears -- airline staff booked her on a later flight to Chicago.

That's when her luck changed.

Clark struck up a conversation with a young businessman across the aisle, Dean Germeyer, who must have overheard her fretting to the flight attendant about making her tight connection to Winnipeg.

Knowing about her trouble in Dallas, Germeyer quietly arranged for Clark to get off the plane first with him so he could escort her to her gate. But Clark again missed her flight, this time by 10 minutes. She hadn't eaten for hours and was very upset.

"I would have sat there on a bench all night and waited for the next plane in the morning", said Clark, who is on a fixed income and blanched at a $75 cab ride to Chicago. "But he said 'Elsie, I'll look after you. I've called my wife and you're coming over for dinner.'"

Turned out Germeyer, an executive with the global information technology firm ACS, lived in a condo on the 56th floor of a posh downtown highrise, with views of the Wrigley Building and Trump Tower.

After dinner, Germeyer took Clark for a tour of the city in his BMW and dropped her off at a chic boutique hotel for the night, all paid for.

"He was my guardian angel," said Clark said from her Winnipeg home Saturday.

From Waterloo Region Record news services

“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.

Thank you for caring

As we enter another new year I would like to thank the individuals and donor families who helped to save the lives of thousands of people around the world by donating blood, bone marrow or organs and tissues for transplantation.

Also, a huge thanks to those who have taken the time to register to be an organ and tissue donor. But the need is still desperate because there are far more people on the waiting lists for a life-saving transplant than there are donors.

If you haven't already registered to be an organ and tissue donor why not make it a resolution to do it this year? The links are below. Thanks.

“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.

Best wishes for 2010

I wish you a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year

For those of us who have received the "gift of life" by an organ transplant every new year is special as we plan and hope for another year of optimal health as we continue to enjoy our second chance at life with family and friends. It's sad that someone had to die (except for living donation) in order for an organ recipient to live, but I hope that the donor families will take comfort in knowing that their loved ones did not die in vain as they continue to live within the recipient and help that person to live on.

DonateLife Float in Rose Parade

Be sure to watch for the DonateLife Float in the annual New Year's Rose Parade. Click on the above link for all the details.

“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.

Contraband cigarettes are big in teen market

HealthCanal.com

Up to 30% of teen smokers are buying First Nations or Native brands – at 1/3 price of brand-name cigarettes

(Toronto) – Teens who smoke are buying cheaper contraband cigarettes in large numbers across Canada, according to a study co-authored by Dr. Russell Callaghan of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). The study was published Dec. 26 by the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

The untaxed contraband cigarettes are available in a thriving underground market from some First Nations and Native organizations in Ontario and Quebec and, at $3-$4, sell for about a third of the price of legitimate or name brands. Previous studies have found that adult smokers of the contraband cigarettes are less likely to try to quit smoking. This has troubling implications for teens who use these cigarettes while developing their smoking habit, however, “the use of contraband cigarettes by teens is not considered in most of our health promotion activities directed at teens,” says Dr. Callaghan.

This study helps to round out the picture of teen smoking in Canada, he adds. “Increasing the price of cigarettes in stores, or taking them off the open shelves in convenience stores, is not going to be an effective way to reach those teens who access contraband cigarettes,” he says.

Numbers highest in Ontario, Quebec

The study asked teens in secondary schools across Canada about their smoking choices. Of the 2,849 who smoke, about 17.5 % use First Nations or Native brand cigarettes. The numbers are even higher in central Canada, with 26.3 % in Ontario and 30% of teen smokers in Quebec buying the contraband smokes. In contrast, less than 4% of teens in Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador use the contraband cigarettes.

More than 40,000 high school students in grades nine to 12 filled out the 2006/2007 Youth Smoking Survey across 10 provinces. The students who identified themselves as smoking at least one cigarette a day were asked which brand they usually smoked.

Issues of the contraband-cigarette trade and First Nations jurisdictions and are complex, adds Dr. Callaghan. “Now we know that policy directed at teen smokers needs to take their access to contraband cigarettes into consideration,” he says.

Funding for this study came from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, in a grant to CAMH.

“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.

Researchers Discover Gene Therapy To Prevent Progression Of Emphysema

HealthCanal.com

(Boston) – Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have discovered a new gene therapy that may prevent the progression of emphysema.

The study, which appears on-line in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, describes a method to express therapeutic genes in lung tissue for a lifetime after only a single treatment.

Alpha-1 Anti-trypsin Deficiency (also commonly called "genetic COPD") is the most common inherited form of emphysema seen in young people due to a mutation in the Alpha-1 Anti-trypsin gene. This genetic disease predisposes affected individuals to early emphysema and cirrhosis of the liver.

According to the researchers, gene transfer into specific cell lineages in vivo remains an attractive yet elusive approach for correcting inherited mutations. Although a variety of techniques have been developed to deliver DNA molecules to cells in vitro, in vivo gene transfer has been limited in many cell types by inefficient gene delivery as well as the limited life-span of differentiated cell types

Using mice, the BUSM researchers discovered a system to deliver genes selectively to as many as 70 percent of a mouse lung’s alveolar macrophages (AM), a key cell type contributing to emphysema.

“We applied this novel approach to achieve sustained in vivo expression of normal human alpha-1 antitrypsin (hAAT) protein at levels able to ameliorate emphysema in mice,” said senior author Darrell Kotton, MD, an associate professor of medicine and pathology and co-director, Center for Regenerative Medicine at BUSM. “The lung macrophages carrying the therapeutic gene survived in the lungs air sacks for the two-year lifetime of the treated mice following a single intra-tracheal injection of the lentiviral vector we had engineered,” he added.

Kotton and his colleagues utilized this method of gene transfer to achieve localized secretion of therapeutic levels of human alpha-1 antitrypsin (hAAT) protein in lung epithelial lining fluid. “The progression of emphysema in mice exposed to elastase was significantly improved by the gene therapy as evidenced by improvements in lung compliance and alveolar size,” said Andrew Wilson, MD, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of medicine at BUSM.

According to the researchers after 24 weeks of sustained gene expression, no humoral or cellular immune responses to the human hAAT protein were detected. “Our results challenge the dogma that lung macrophages are short-lived and suggest these differentiated cells as a target cell that may be considered for in vivo gene therapy applications including the sustained correction of hAAT deficiency,” added Wilson.

“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.

Donate Life Float in Rose Parade January 1st

One of my favorite things to do on New Year's Day is to sit back and relax with my feet up and watch the Rose Parade. I always look for the Donate Life Float and just by chance a few years ago I came across KTLA-TV from Los Angeles while flipping channels. KTLA takes us behind the scenes with close-ups of the floats and interviews with the designers and riders. They come on the air at 6 a.m. PST (9 a.m. EST) and continue with the parade starting at 8 a.m. PST (11 a.m. EST). Many cable companies and other providers carry KTLA as a super station. In my area Rogers Cable carries it on channel 344.

When people say "Yes" to organ, eye and tissue donation, New Life Rises, giving hope and healing to those in need of life-saving transplants. In Donate Life's seventh Rose Parade float entry, a phoenix, the mythical symbol of life coming out of death, rises into the sky, representing those who give life in their passing and the people whose lives are renewed by their gifts.

From a bed of nurturing flames, the majestic phoenix rises anew, its tail feathers adorned with 76 Floragraphs
– memorial portraits created with floral materials – depicting loved ones who gave life to those in need. The bird soars high above 24 Float riders – all transplant recipients, living donors, and family members of deceased donors – seated along a monument inspired by the National Donor Memorial's Wall of Names. A garden inspired by the memorial's Wall of Tears leads the float with 2,000 dedicated roses, each carrying a personal message of love, gratitude and hope to a donor, recipient or candidate for transplant.

More than 85 million Americans have said "Yes" to saving lives by enrolling with their state organ and tissue donor registries. Join them today by visiting Donate Life America at www.donatelife.net.

Coordinated by Donate Life America member OneLegacy, the Donate Life float is supported by nearly 60 official partners from across the nation, including organ and tissue recovery organizations, tissue banks, state donor registries, transplant centers and affiliated organizations.

Joining OneLegacy as top-level benefactors are Astellas Pharma US, Inc., a fifth-year sponsor of five float riders through the “Ride of a Lifetime” contest and supporter of 1,000 volunteer decorators; the American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB); the Dignity Memorial network, North America’s largest network of funeral, cremation and cemetery service providers and sponsor four floragraphs; Donate Life America; and UNOS and the National Donor Memorial. All float partners encourage parade viewers to save lives by registering in their states to be organ, eye and tissue donors and donating blood in their communities.

The Pasadena Tournament of Roses is a volunteer organization that annually hosts the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl Game® presented by Citi. The 121st Rose Parade will take place Friday, Jan. 1, 2010, at 8 a.m. (PST) featuring majestic floral floats, high-stepping equestrian units and spirited marching bands.

Following the Rose Parade, the 96th Rose Bowl Game presented by Citi will kick off at 2:10 p.m. and feature the No. 8 BCS-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes versus the No. 7 BCS-ranked Oregon Ducks in The Granddaddy of Them All®. The Rose Bowl Game will be broadcast exclusively on ABC and on ESPN

On Jan. 7, the Tournament of Roses will also host the No. 1 and No. 2 BCS-ranked teams in the 2010 Citi BCS National Championship Game. The Game will kick off at 5 p.m. (PST) from the historic Rose Bowl Stadium. For additional information about the Tournament of Roses® please visit the official website at http://www.tournamentofroses.com.

For more information about the Donate Life Rose Parade Float, visit the official float website at http://www.donatelifefloat.org.

“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.

Plan Now to Quit Smoking for New Year’s

Cigarette smoking causes an estimated 438,000 deaths, or about 1 of every 5 deaths, each year, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Adults who smoke cigarettes die 14 years earlier than nonsmokers. The leading cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, including emphysema, is tobacco smoking. COPD is projected to be the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2020 due to an increase in smoking rates and demographic changes in many countries. As of 2005, the most common reason for lung transplantation in the United States was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, including emphysema.


Success Comes After Making a Plan, Receiving Support from Loved Ones

By Leslie White HealthCanal.com

If you’re a smoker who’s considering quitting as part of your new year’s resolutions, you may want to start creating your plan for success.

“Research shows that if a person makes a plan, builds a support system of family, friends and professionals, that they have a greater chance of successfully quitting smoking and beating nicotine addiction,” said Scott McIntosh, Ph.D., director of the Greater Rochester Area Tobacco Cessation Center and associate director of the Smoking Research Program at the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “Quitting smoking is the best decision anyone can make to improve their overall health.”

Earlier this month, the World Health Organization reported that smoking contributes to the deaths of 5 million people each year.

Twelve simple tips for quitting:

1. Make a plan for quitting. Talk to your doctor about strategies such as cold turkey versus nicotine replacement therapies.


2. If you can give up cigarettes for 24 hours, you double your chance for success.


3. Tell your friends, family and co-workers that you plan to quit and rally them to help you stick with it.


4. Consider using nicotine replacements – gum, patch or Zyban – to help you quit.


5. Use resources available from the *New York State Smokers’ Quitline: 1-866-NY-QUITS (1-866-697-8487) and www.nysmokefree.com the New York Smokers’ Quitsite.


6. Avoid risky situations or behaviors that were comfortable when smoking.


7. Remove all ashtrays, lighters, matches and cigarettes from the house. Just seeing them can make you want to smoke.


8. Start eating sugarless hard candy or chewing crunchy vegetables – like carrot sticks – to keep your mouth busy. Consider using cinnamon candy, because its “burning” sensation mimics the feeling of smoking and kills the craving.


9. Drink a lot of water. It helps keep you feeling “full,” and prevents you from overeating and gaining weight. It also helps “cleanse” your body of the toxins from years of smoking.


10. Practice breathing deeply or take a walk when you’re craving a cigarette. Smoking involves taking long deep breaths, but now it’ll be fresh air rather than chemicals entering your lungs.


11. Remind yourself why you are quitting - and reward yourself every day you make it without smoking cigarettes.


12. Age doesn’t matter - older smokers are less likely to try to quit, but when they do try, they are more likely to succeed.

Help with quitting

*For the UK and North America click on the link for a list of major English-speaking charities, helplines and organizations for people who want to give up smoking and need further help or advice. helpwithsmoking.com

Smoking bans in public places

Breathing in second-hand smoke can be a big detriment to those trying to quit smoking. To help you avoid exposure here is list of smoke-free US States and Canadian Provinces as well as efforts around the world to ban smoking.

Canada: Canadian anti-smoking bans

United States: US anti-smoking bans

Global anti-smoking efforts

Double-lung transplant to carry Olympic Torch

Kurt Penner, left , and Merv Sheppard at London Air Show, 6-27-04

(Click image for larger view)

Congratulations to my fellow lung transplant recipient Kurt Penner, who received his "gift of Life' at Toronto General Hospital in 2002 and has been selected from the millions who applied to be part of the Olympic Torch Relay. We were both patients at TGH and I met Kurt, his wife Lila and their family. We've been friends every since. We both have been advocates for organ and tissue donation since then, working with Trillium Gift of Life Network.

Kurt will carry the 37 inch and three-and-a-half pound torch on Sunday, December 27 in Woodstock, Ontario at 10 a.m. along Parkinson Road. This is one of the stops on the 27th as it makes it way from London, Ontario to the twin cities of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario.

Kurt and his family were volunteers at the 1988 Olympics in Japan and in 1998 they visited their son who was working at the Olympics there for CBC. Kurt has taken part in three transplant games and won several medals.

Kurt entered a RBC Bank contest where he had to submit an application and state how he would make the community and country a better place to live. Kurt said he wanted to continue to promote organ donation and improve lives within his community and also to honor his donor.

The Olympic Flame began its 45,000 kilometer (27,961 miles) journey across Canada, on October 30 in Victoria BC, visiting over 1000 communities and places of interest. Twelve thousand torchbearers will carry the Olympic Flame from coast to coast to coast in what is the longest relay held within the borders of any Host Country in history.

The relay will culminate at BC Place on February 12, 2010, with the lighting of the Olympic Cauldron, signaling the start of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

See when the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay will be in your town.

“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.

Merry Christmas

Seasons Greetings, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all.

Here's a heart warming story that appeared in the Waterloo Region Record (Ontario) December 24th and I think it's very timely for today's blog post.

Kitchener, Ontario - —It seems the Christmas spirit is alive
and well in Waterloo Region.

Early Wednesday morning, Donna Poplawski and
her 17-year-old son Robert Ferguson were woken by a
knock at the door of their Kinzie Avenue home. Upon
answering the door, Ferguson was greeted by a young
couple who handed him a $50 gift card to Food Basics.

“He rushed up the stairs and said ‘Mom, someone
just gave us a gift card,’” said Poplawski. “I thought it
might have been stolen or a prank.”

Enclosed with the gift card was a receipt, proving
that the card was real and purchased legitimately.
The couple didn’t give their names or any information,
but Robert could see they had a stack of cards.

“I think they were just going door to door handing
them out,” said Poplawski. “It’s overwhelming, because
we live in low-income housing, and we really
need food right now.”

“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.

Lung patient pledges money for charity

HELPING good causes: Rachael Wakefield is waiting for a lung transplant but has pledged money raised for her to charity.

Special present from Rachael as she waits for gift of life

by Sue Carr Tameside Advertiser

A YOUNGSTER battling a crippling lung disease who was recently granted a place on the transplant list is to give the money donated to help her to charity.

Rachael Wakefield, 21, was just 13 when she was struck down with the disease but was told she didn’t ‘fit the criteria’ for a transplant in the UK.

Her tragic story touched the hearts of many who donated money to send her to the world’s leading lung transplant clinic in America.

Now, after specialists finally agreed to add her name to the donor list, Rachael has decided to split the fund between the five charities who have helped her since becoming ill.

Among the beneficiaries is Willow Wood Hospice in Ashton where she spent six weeks last year.

Rachael suffers from hypersensitivity pneumonitis, more commonly known as bird fancier’s lung, which was triggered by dust from the family’s pet cockatiel’s droppings which wafted into the air. It is harmless to most people but can trigger chronic breathing difficulties in a minority of people.

Mum Lynnette, of Rosewood Close, Dukinfield, said: "When she was in Willow Wood we were warned to prepare for the worst, we didn’t think she was going to come out alive.

"She still goes to the day hospice every Thursday – it just gives us both a bit of a break – and they couldn’t be any better, they are just absolutely fantastic."

Other charities to receive a boost are Wales Air Ambulance, organ donor charity Live Life Then Give Life and Wythenshawe Hospital which will treat Rachael if and when a transplant becomes available.

A donation will also go to the Willow Foundation which grants wishes for seriously-ill adults and earlier this year arranged for her favourite comedian Peter Kay to ring her on her 21st birthday.

The family thanked everyone who had made a donation, but for now there’s only one thing they’re hoping for this Christmas – the phone call which could save her life.

Rachael, a former Droylsden Girls School pupil, said: "In the last couple of weeks my health has got worse and I’m now on a ventilator 24 hours a day.

"I went to see my doctor but he said there’s nothing more we can do and we’re running out of time."

Registering to donate any or all of your organs takes just a couple of minutes. Call 0300 1232323 or visit http://www.organdonation.nhs.uk

“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.

Transplant memories revisited

This story about an organ recipient developing a taste for foods that his donor was fond of is another in a long line of similar reports. One such earlier story was about a heart recipient who started listening to classical music and buying classical cd's after receiving the heart of a musician. This phenomenon of "cellular transference" or "transplant memories" has not been proven as far as I know but these stories keep cropping up.

The joy of a heart's desire - why organ donation is a wonderful gesture

By Richard Noone: The Daily Telegraph - Australia

IT seemed too real to be mere coincidence - and it brought joy to Kaden Delaney's family.

Kaden's parents Greg and Shelley spent two years finding David Waters, whose life was saved when he received their son's heart after he died in a car crash. But in an exchange of emails they learned Mr Waters amazingly had developed a taste for Burger Rings - which was Kaden's favorite snack treat.

The Delaney's second eldest son was left brain dead after rolling his brother's car into an embankment near their home in Orange, in the state's Central West, in April 2006. In line with his wishes, they donated the 17-year-old's heart, lungs, liver, pancreas and kidneys.

Two years and countless key internet word searches later Mrs Delaney tracked down Mr Waters, the recipient of Kaden's heart.

The 24-year-old from Adelaide suffered a stiffening of the heart ventricles and had months to live.

When they began email contact Mr Waters asked: "Did Kaden like Burger Rings? That's all I seemed to want to eat after my surgery."

Mrs Delaney responded: "I have been informed by a reliable source - Talby, (Kaden's brother) that Kaden loved Burger Rings."

Mr Waters replied: "I certainly think I have got some traits from him, Burger Rings right after the op, I never used to eat them before."

The theory the brain is not the only organ to store memories or personality traits and memory as a process can form in other parts of the body such as the heart has been coined "cellular memory".

The most famous reported case was American Claire Sylvia, a heart-lung transplant recipient, who documented her sudden craving for beer, chicken nuggets and green peppers in a best-selling memoir after discovering her donor was an 18-year-old male who died in a motorcycle accident.

Westmead Millennium Institute professor and president of the International Transplantation Society Jeremy Chapman said the phenomenon had not been proven.

"There is no scientific basis of such a claim," he said. "There's so much fiction around transplants."

“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.

Reconditioned lungs used in UK transplant

It's gratifying to see that more centers, such as the Freeman Hospital in the UK, are using the Ex-vivo (outside the body) Lung Perfusion System that allows surgeons the opportunity to assess and treat injured donor lungs, while they are outside the body, to make them suitable for transplantation. Read my earlier post on the World-first Toronto XVIVO Lung Perfusion System.

Research breakthrough gives new life to lungs for transplantation

BBC News

Donor lungs normally rejected as too damaged can now be 'reconditioned' for transplant, say doctors.

Cystic fibrosis patient James Finlayson is the first in the UK to receive lungs revived using oxygen, nutrients and antibiotics.

Newcastle-based scientists and surgeons suggest it could eventually double the number of available organs.

Current shortages mean that many patients die waiting for their operation.

The fragile nature of the lung means that it is far more vulnerable to damage during the final hours of life.

At present, four out of five potential donor lungs turn out to be unsuitable, but the recent operation at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle was the first in the UK to use one of these 'rejected' organs.

The technique involves connecting the lungs to a heart bypass machine then pumping a tightly-controlled solution of oxygen, proteins, antibiotics and nutrients over the damaged tissues.

This helps reduce inflammation, and even allows some damage to be repaired.

Regular checks are made on the ability of the lung to do its job of exchanging oxygen and maintaining airway pressure.

After approximately six hours, the lung has been improved sufficiently to be transplanted into the patient.

'Poor condition'

Mr Finlayson was discharged from hospital at the end of November, and is said to be recovering well.

Professor Andrew Fisher, from the Institute of Cellular Medicine at Newcastle University, said that the lung chosen for the pioneering operation had been in such poor condition that it would have been "rejected outright" by any transplant centre in the world.

He said: "We now have the potential to double the number of lungs available for transplant - it will offer new hope to a great number of patients."
Canadian surgeons have been using the technique for approximately a year longer, and Professor Fisher said that early signs showed similar survival rates for patients given "reconditioned" lungs.

He said that other UK transplant centres were now involved in work to use the technique more widely, but that greater investment would be needed in transplant services if the number of operations were to rise significantly.

The research was funded by the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, and a spokesman said that hundreds of people with the disease, and other lung conditions, could benefit.

She said: "At present, around half of those with Cystic Fibrosis on the transplant list die waiting for donor lungs."

Dr Keith Prowse of the British Lung Foundation said: "This is a very exciting procedure and if it leads to more lungs being available for transplant operations, it will be a hugely welcome development.

"There is an increasing demand for lung transplants but just not enough lungs available."

“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.