Alberta organ donation campaign highlights 'all the ways' to tell family your wishes

Alberta Health Services has launched a new campaign encouraging people to register as an organ donor while simultaneously unveiling a new name for its provincial donation program.

The program, previously called The Alberta Organ and Tissue Donation Program, has now been rebranded as Give Life Alberta.

Officials say the new name serves as a call to action for Albertans to register their intent to donate online and to tell loved ones about their decision.

The push to register comes during National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Week, April 21 to 27, during which Give Life Alberta launched its new 'All the Ways' campaign.

The ads show creative ways people can inform loved ones of their decision to donate organs and tissues.

Give Life Alberta says while the campaign’s tone is light-hearted, the goal is to normalize talks about deceased donation.

"You could potentially show your family one of these ads and then talk about, 'By the way, these are my wishes… I'd like to donate these particular organs and tissues when I pass away,'" said spokesperson Su-Ling Goh.

"Just to make it a little easier for them, should they ever be in that position where they do have to consent."

Shauna Coffey, a donor coordinator at the Foothills Medical Centre, says she often meets families when they're reeling and never imagined themselves in the position to make a decision about a loved one's organ and tissue donation.

"It's our job to explain their options to them and to discuss what they think their loved one might want, to make sure that they have all the information that they need to make the right decision for them."

Coffey says many people are comforted by knowing that through their loss, someone else will have a second chance at life.

"Many people find comfort in imagining that their loved one is living on with somebody else, in somebody else's body," she said.

"Helping someone else to breathe and helping somebody else to be able to return to work and live a long life."

Coffey says when families have had a discussion about donation wishes, they're more prepared if tragedy strikes.

"With tissue donation in particular, many people don't realize that their loved one is even eligible to donate," she said.

"It is often the furthest thing from their mind, and it's really important that we let people know that's what is available to them."

Kinza Barney, who lost her 15-year-old son to a dirt bike crash in 2022, says she applauds the campaign.

Barney's says her son Zach Trimm was a giving person who loved life.

When he was ready to start driving and taking his learner permit test, he talked to his mom about being an organ donor.

"I said 'absolutely.' I've been a registered donor for many years, and it says on my driver's license 'donor' at the bottom," Kinza said.

"We had a short conversation about what that meant, and I said, 'So what do you think?' And he said,' Absolutely, I'm going to register to be a donor.'"

It was just a few short weeks later Kinza spoke to doctors about donating his heart, lungs, liver and both kidneys. She says it was a very challenging time and is still a difficult memory.

"I recall the conversation I had with him just a couple of weeks prior," she said.

"This is not about us and what we want anymore, this is about what Zach would want and he's already very clearly told us that he wanted to be a registered organ donor."

On what would have been Zach's 16th birthday, he ended up saving at least five lives.

"It keeps him alive in some ways for us that he continues to live on," said Kinza.

"We've had the benefit of meeting one of his kidney recipients and to watch this man with his two young sons and his wife, watch the vacations they get to go on and the things they get to do in life, in relation to the gift that Zach was able to give them.

"(It's) so incredibly comforting and beautiful for us to be able to see."

Goh says the need in Alberta for donors is constant.

"Right now in Alberta, there are about 300 people waiting for life saving transplants," she said.

"These are people who they don't know how long they have to live, and last year in Alberta, we had about 50 people die who were on that waitlist."

To learn more about the campaign you can visit the Alberta Health Services website.