September 9, 2025
CALGARY – Alberta’s organ and tissue donation program Give Life Alberta has raised a new flag at the Foothills Medical Centre (FMC) during Living Donation Week, September 7-13. The flag is a tribute to the thousands of people in Alberta, both living and deceased, who have given the gift of life to others.
The Give Life Alberta flag will be raised in the FMC’s Grounds for Gratitude for two weeks every year: Living Donation Week in September and National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Week in April. The flag’s icon – a green heart filling the void of a dotted heart – symbolizes organ and tissue donation.
Some healthy adults can safely donate one kidney or a part of their liver and still live a normal life. In 2024 alone, a total of 74 living donors selflessly saved lives in Alberta by donating 69 kidneys and five liver lobes.
Since the first living kidney donation at the FMC in 1974, about 700 selfless people have stepped up to donate a kidney there. Among those is Rhekia Fahssi, who helped raise the new Give Life Alberta flag with her father, Saad Fahssi.
In 2010, when she was 18 years old, Rhekia donated her right kidney to Saad after his previous transplant from a deceased donor failed. She says her dad initially forbade her from going through major surgery for him, but on Father’s Day, she sat him down for a talk.
“I said, ‘I’m giving you a kidney. I’m not asking you if you will take my kidney, I am telling you’,” says Rhekia. “’I want you to be around in my life. I want you to be here for all the landmarks for me, my brother and everyone else in our life’.”
Saad had spent a total of at least 12 years on dialysis, hooked up to a machine for 15 hours every week. Since his daughter’s donation, he’s travelled to Morocco, where he grew up, several times. He also got married.
“(Rhekia) did save my life. She gave me a second opportunity at living and doing things I wanted to do with her and her brother and our new family,” says Saad. “I cherish every moment of that. She’s a good human.”
Living donors take part in an extensive testing process to ensure they are healthy enough for major surgery, compatible with their intended recipient (to minimize the chance of rejection) and infection-free.
“Living donors go through surgery and put their lives on hold to save someone else’s life. Some even do this for a stranger,” says Give Life Alberta Medical Director Dr. Andreas Kramer.
“Every year in Alberta, dozens of individuals choose to be living donors, and hundreds of families choose to donate their deceased loved one’s organs and tissues. We are so grateful for these gifts of life.”
There are more than 500 people waiting for life-saving transplants in Alberta. For more information on how to become a living donor, visit GiveLifeAlberta.ca
When it comes to deceased donation, one organ donor can save up to eight lives, and one tissue donor can save or dramatically improve up to 75 lives. Albertans are encouraged to register their intent to donate after death at GiveLifeAlberta.ca — or at a motor vehicle registry office — and to tell their loved ones about their donation decision, as they will be asked to consent.
Give Life Alberta is dedicated to making the option of organ and tissue donation a trusted part of end-of-life care in Alberta. By increasing awareness, registrations and conversations, we can reduce missed donation opportunities and improve access to life-saving transplants.
