Hospital staff thanked for making organ donation possible in Maple Ridge

Multiple organ recipient Geoff Dunsire was not at an event this year thanking health care workers for making organ donation happen.

But his mother was at Ridge Meadows Hospital on Friday, Dec. 9, for BC Transplant’s Operation Popcorn – and she was elated her son wasn’t there.

He has a job at London Drugs, she announced, adding that was something they never thought was going to be possible because of his health.

Geoff’s mother Tracey, instead, thanked the hospital staff on behalf of her son at the 31st annual event where popcorn by Rocky Mountain Chocolate is handed out to those who work in intensive care units, emergency departments, and operating rooms in hospitals across the province, thanking them for making organ donation possible.

“My son has had two transplants – one at 25 and one at 31. I can’t express enough the gratitude and the special – what it takes to do what you guys do. It takes a very special person to do that. And I know it’s your job. But to us it means everything,” she told representatives from the different departments at Ridge Meadows Hospital.

“Thank you from the bottom of our hearts,” Tracey told the hospital staff.

Tracey, her daughter Allyssa Tripp, her son’s organ donor Debi Pearce, and another organ donor Freddie Marsh, hand-delivered the popcorn to the different units.

Geoff required a liver transplant by the age of 25, after he came down with a liver disease called autoimmune hepatitis.

Following the first life-saving transplant, his kidneys then began to fail. That’s when their real estate agent Pearce stepped in and donated one of her kidneys.

READ MORE: Maple Ridge realtor lauded for life-saving kindness

Hospital executive director Rich Dillon was on hand for the presentation and noted that there’s a connection with every team member – whether it be the operating room or the intensive care unit or medical teams.

“It’s incredible to be able to share and see the outcomes. It’s a real sense of family,” he said.

Marsh is a living donor who donated a kidney to a friend of his in New Westminster after he found out they shared the same blood type. The transplant took place in 2015 at Vancouver General Hospital, he said.

“She started feeling better almost immediately, and it was really incredible to see that,” he explained. “And it makes me think of what a great time that we live in, this is actually something that can be done,” he elaborated.

Marsh said although he had signed his donor card, it never crossed his mind he would be a live donor.

ALSO: Maple Ridge transplant recipient and donor thank staff at hospital

“And really it made no difference to my life. My health is exactly the same as it was before,” he noted.

Sandra Bazley wit BC Transplant noted how meaningful the event is to staff on the different units in hospitals who are currently very stressed and understaffed.

“Every little thank you, every little thing is so meaningful to them,” she said.

Bazley said the most important thing for people to do, even if they don’t register for organ donation, is to have that conversation around organ donation with their family so that in a horrible time, there isn’t that decision to make.

“It’s a big relief to families when somebody is registered,” she said, or when they’ve talked about it and know their loved one’s wishes.