Cheryl Olson is a two time heart transplant recipient and welcomes new money in the provincial budget to create a provincial organ donor registry. (file photo/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Tyler Marr

ORGAN DONATION

Organ donation advocate applauds funds for provincial registry in budget

Mar 25, 2019 | 1:57 PM

A North Battleford organ donation advocate is applauding moves by the province to earmark dollars to create a provincial organ donor registry.

The $558,000 in funding was included in the Saskatchewan government’s latest budget. Work on the registry will commence immediately, with the goal of launching the registry in early 2020.

Cheryl Olson is a two-time heart transplant recipient and said the move is a step in the right direction. She said her advocacy efforts have been frustrated by not having a concrete way to tell people how they can help besides simply putting the sticker on their health card.

“Now, maybe there is a way people like myself can get out there and try to promote this and get the awareness out there and get people to sign up,” she said.

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Saskatchewan has long lagged behind the rest of Canada in organ donation rates. The latest numbers reported by the Saskatchewan Health Authority show the province’s rate of donation was 14.6 per million population in 2017, up from 12.2 the year prior.

Olson hopes the registry will push these numbers higher but further pointed to the province’s vastness and the difficulties this brings in moving potential donors to a facility in a timely manner as another reason it lags behind.

The province has hinted in the past of moving towards a presumed consent or opt-out donation system. In 2016, former premier Brad Wall said if it would be possible to have presumed consent that consistent with the rights of Canadians, it “would be a great thing to lead the country in.”

But in 2018, the province put the brakes on Wall’s vision but said it is not ruling it out.

Olson is in favour of presumed consent and believes the registry could be a big step in moving toward it.

“I think it is going to give the government a visual of how many people support organ donation,” she said. “Maybe it will give them a clue of how the opt-out program will be received by the residents of Saskatchewan.”

Since the Humboldt Broncos collision last April, organ and tissue donation has been thrust to the forefront of conversation. Logan Boulet, who died in hospital following the crash, signed his donor card shortly before his death.

Olson said the renewed attention is helping. When she received her first transplant nearly 20 years ago, she said it was rare to find others who knew someone who had received a transplant. But now, she finds more and more people are knowledgeable about the subject.

To further erode at the taboo around organ donation, Olson would like to see a program in school health classes where a recipient or donor comes in and speaks to the students.

“They are our upcoming generation. If it becomes something they have heard about and something normal they have heard and talked about, eventually, it will just be something they don’t think about they just know ‘Yes, I will be a donor,’” she said.

Olsen hopes recipients and advocates like herself will have the opportunity to work with the province on the program to make it successful.

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tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr