The selfless act of 21-year-old Broncos player Logan Boulet has inspired thousands of people across Ontario to step up and sign up.
According to the Trillium Gift of Life Network online donor registrations surged by nearly 2,000% on Tuesday alone with 865 new registrations compared to 42 in an average day. That number has been consistently growing since Sunday, when the network saw 182 new online donors.
"This beautiful young man taught the world the right thing to do," said Ronnie Gavsie, the CEO of the Trillium Gift of Life Network. "That is really breath taking."
1,500 people in Ontario are currently waiting for a transplant, with a total of 4,500 people waiting nationwide.
"What you are doing when you are registering is that you are giving great hope to people on the waitlist simply by telling them you care, that you would help them if you could," she said.
Ken (Kenny) Douglas knows what a difference a transplant can make. When he received his double lung transplant nearly three years ago he was on the brink of death, unable to walk or breathe without oxygen. Today he is fully recovered, operating at 70 per cent lung capacity compared to 18 per cent before the transplant.
"The biggest hero in my life is someone I haven't met and not will I never meet," Douglas said. "That's someone who chose to make that decision and as importantly, whose family in that moment, as we have seen with the Logan Effect of Logan, his family in that unimaginable circumstance is having the courage to consent to their son's organs being donated."
Though donation can be a difficult decision, the family of teenager Ted Stenton who died in a car crash 16 years ago, said it can also help the healing process. They say this movement and the awareness it is raising will save countless lives.
"Something happens to you in a terrible instant, but in the same instant you are able to create hope and joy for so many other families," said Doug Jackson, whose step-son died 16 years ago in a car crash.
"It meant to me that he would still live on in other people, that he would be able to go on living," said Ted's mom, Shannon Dunne.
You can sign up to be a donor at www.beadonaor.ca
