Transplant recipients can’t visit hospitals in person to express thanks this year, but they hope that their appreciation still comes across.
B.C. Transplant has been holding its annual Operation Popcorn campaign this week, Dec. 7-11, delivering festive boxes of popcorn to health-care workers at hospitals around the province. Transplant recipients, living donors and family members of deceased donors usually make the deliveries personally, but aren’t able to do so during a pandemic. Nevertheless, they want to express gratitude to health-care workers, noted a press release from B.C. Transplant.
Ted and Lynne Fraser of Nanaimo have made popcorn deliveries in the past, following Ted’s right lung transplant in 2007, but this year they recorded a video message to express appreciation. The couple thanked doctors, nurses, care aides, technicians and others in the emergency room, operating room and intensive care unit at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, as well as helicopter crews and those in the transplant ward on the 12th floor at Vancouver General Hospital.
“In the last 13 years Ted has been a little high-maintenance and we want to thank all those people who have cared for him and supported him,” said Lynne.
The couple, in their video message, talked about the great memories they’ve made over the last 13 years, celebrating occasions and travelling far and wide.
“We are so grateful to so many for so much,” Lynne said.
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B.C. Transplant notes that Operation Popcorn happens in December to coincide with a season of giving, and suggests there’s no better embodiment of that spirit than a willingness “to give the gift of life” as a registered organ donor. There are more than 750 British Columbians waiting for a transplant, the agency notes, and registration has declined in 2020.
“B.C. Transplant works in hospitals to directly support families of organ donors at a time of loss and grief, and our team sees first-hand the impact of these gifts of life,” says Eric Lun, B.C. Transplant’s provincial executive director, in the press release. “Registering as a donor is a selfless act of kindness.”
For more information about becoming an organ donor or to register, visit www.transplant.bc.ca or www.taketwominutes.ca.
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