B.C. man shares story of why wife donated organs

A man in Kelowna is sharing the story of why his wife decided to donate her organs after receiving a terminal diagnosis.

Dan Faulkner says his wife Yvonne was diagnosed with a deadly form of brain cancer in 2017.

He says she was only given a year to live.

As a result, Dan says Yvonne decided to go through the process of medical assistance in death (MAID).

“She decided that she would like to leave on her own terms, picked her time that she wanted to go, but then organ donation popped into her head,” he explained.

“So we thought, ‘that is a blessing,’ something good to come out of something so terribly wrong.”

But because she was going through MAID, he says she was denied by doctors.

However, they then contacted BC Transplant who gave them the green light.

“Yvonne wanted to go through with it. She would be the first person in B.C. and the third person in Canada, to be an organ donor going through MAID. So of course she said yes,” he explained.

He says during the process the family was shown unbelievable compassion.

“The nurses were crying, and at the end of it my family walked out, they all met us in the hall and held their hands over their hearts and wished us the best,” he said.

He says knowing that her organs can help someone else makes all the difference.

“It has made the best situation for me to overcome my grieving and know that she is still out there giving life,” he said.

“Say you’ve gone through it or been a part of it. You’ll never understand the true depths, and then the onus we have to look after one another and do our best on the way out.”

Green Shirt Day

Friday is Green Shirt Day in memory of Logan Boulet, among the over-a-dozen young hockey players who died in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash five years ago.

Sixteen people died and 13 were injured after a transport truck went through a stop sign and into the path of a bus carrying the Saskatchewan junior hockey team on April 6, 2018.

The day after the crash, Boulet died of his injuries.

Like Dan’s wife, Boulet was an organ donor.

According to Canadian Blood Services, his death inspired an estimated 150,000 people to register as donors “in the days and weeks that followed his donation,” sparking what has since become known as the “Logan Boulet effect.”

According to BC Transplant, the total donor registration in the province has continued to climb to over 200,000 since 2018.