A bunch of Calgarians donned green shirts and staged a parade to raise awareness for organ donation Sunday.
Hope in Motion: A Green Shirt Day Community Parade celebrated the seventh anniversary of Green Shirt Day which was created to honour the memory of Logan Boulet, a member of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team who died in the 2018 bus crash that took the lives of 16 Broncos players and coaches.
Boulet’s death was the start of an effort to promote organ donation awareness, the revelation that his organs were donated helped spur tens of thousands of Canadians on to sign up to volunteer theirs as well.
Transplant recipient Barry Shaw was on hand Sunday, sharing the story of his kidney replacement.
“It came out of the blue for me,“ Shaw said. ”I didn’t know that I had any kidney disease or anything.
“I was told that I was at end stage kidney disease the moment I found out and that I needed a kidney transplant, and I’d probably be on dialysis within six months,” he said. “So I went looking for a kidney, but because I wasn’t on dialysis yet, I was ineligible for a deceased donor, so I had to find my own kidney!”
Shaw’s own family was ineligible to donate their kidneys, because doctors determined that his kidney disease was from a hereditary disease, but his wife’s sister offered to donate one of hers.
“I received it in July of last year, so about eight months ago, and I’m doing great,” Shaw said. “I’m very grateful.”
Michelle Hofer, the communications manager for the Kidney Foundation of Canada southern Alberta branch, said one thing the organization stresses is the need to have what Boulet’s father Toby calls “that kitchen table talk.”
“So that your family knows your wishes and when something unfortunate happens, at least they have the ability to make those wishes happen.”
She said the organization was inspired by what they call “The Logan Boulet Effect,” and hope to keep the momentum going seven years later.
“Since 2018, there’s been hundreds of thousands of people who have registered by being inspired by Logan Boulet when the crash first happened and his family was able to donate his organs,” said Hofer.
“And so since then, our goal is every year to try and get another 100,000 people each year to register their intent to donate,” she added.
Shaw said the experience was seamless for both himself -- and his organ donor.
“My sister in law, who gave one, said she notices no difference at all in her life, and (its absence) hasn’t made any difference,” Shaw said. “So, and that’s the message that I’ve heard from a lot of other people.
“Even the doctors tell us that they’re not sure why we have two kidneys, because you don’t need two -- you only need one.”
For more information about the Kidney Foundation of Canada, go here.
With files from CTV’s Tyler Barrow
