April 22, 2024
EDMONTON – Alberta Health Services (AHS) has launched a new public awareness campaign and revealed a new name for its provincial donation program during National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Week, April 21-27.
All the Ways is a series of video and print ads showing creative methods of informing loved ones about your decision to donate organs and tissues. While the campaign’s tone is light-hearted, the goal is to normalize talks about deceased donation. Grieving families faced with the difficult decision to donate often find it easier if they know what their loved one wanted.
The Alberta Organ and Tissue Donation Program is now Give Life Alberta. The new name is a call to action for Albertans to register their intent to donate online at GiveLifeAlberta.ca and to tell loved ones about their decision. Albertans can also continue to register to donate at motor vehicle registry offices. Signing the back of your Alberta Health card is still accepted, although not preferred over online registration, and families must be informed in case the card is lost.
“The Government of Alberta is proud to support this life-saving program and campaign,” says Adriana LaGrange, Minister of Health. “Increasing donation rates will reduce wait times for transplants and allow seriously ill patients to get back to life.”
One organ donor can save up to eight lives, and a tissue donor can save or dramatically improve lives for up to 75 people. While Alberta marked another record year – with 273 organ and tissue donors in 2023 — there are almost 300 people waiting for life-saving transplants in our province. Last year, nearly 50 people on the wait-list died.
Kinza Barney applauds the effort to encourage Albertans to act on their good intentions. When the Airdrie resident received news that her 15-year-old son Zachary would not survive a dirt bike crash, her family knew what he would want. He had an important conversation with his mother weeks before, while practising for his driver’s test.
“He had asked me, ‘Are you a donor?’ because he knew that going in to get his driver’s licence, eventually that was something that was going to be asked of him,” says Barney.
“I showed him my licence and said, ‘See it says ‘donor’ and there’s a little heart at the bottom. What do you think?’ And he said, ‘Absolutely. I want to be an organ donor.’
Zachary’s road test was scheduled for his 16th birthday in 2022. Instead, he donated his organs that day, saving five lives.
“Looking back, what a coincidence to have had that conversation with a 15-year-old … only to be here today and having to make a decision that reflects his wishes,” says Barney. “It made our decision a lot easier for sure.”
AHS donor coordinators are approaching more families than ever since Alberta’s Bill 205 took effect one year ago. The bill creates a more structured pathway for the organ and tissue donation process, and ensures specialists have adequate time to identify and assess potential donors and discuss the option with families.
“The families that have talked about organ and tissue donation, they are able to know exactly what their loved one’s wishes are and either sign the consent or not,” says donor coordinator Carey Beninger. “It makes such a difference in such a stressful time. They don’t want to get it wrong. They want to be sure this is what their loved one would have wanted.”
To learn more about organ and tissue donation, or to register your decision to donate, visit GiveLifeAlberta.ca.
Click here to download some of the All the Ways campaign’s materials.
Alberta Health Services is the provincial health authority responsible for planning and delivering health supports and services for more than four million adults and children living in Alberta. Our mission is to provide a patient-focused, quality health system that is accessible and sustainable for all Albertans. Our current focus is on reducing emergency department wait times, improving EMS response times, increasing access to surgeries, and improving patient flow.
