Life Donation Awareness Associate of Midwest Ontario
Member Stories
Mike Willis – Heart Recipient
My name is Mike Willis, and I received a new heart in the summer of 2015. My old heart was working at less than 20% of it’s capacity, and getting worse every day due to Viral Myocarditis. Thanks to my donor I am alive today, and getting better every day. www.beadonor.ca/campaign/mike-willis Why www.beadonor.ca ? Without […]
Charles Cook – Heart Recipient
Waterloo Region Record ByJohanna Weidner KITCHENER — Charles Cook is halfway there. The Kitchener man has a new heart. Next is a new kidney. And then, hopefully and finally, freedom. “Then hopefully after that everything works out and I’ll be off dialysis and able to get on with my life,” said Cook, 47. Before getting […]
Ryan Morrison – Heart Recipient
Heart Transplant Recipient, July 31, 2015 In my early 20s I was diagnosed with HCM (hypertrophic cardio myopathy) an enlarged heart muscle. For 20 years I lived with the side effects of this disease, controlled by multiple medications and pacemakers/ICDs. At 42 years old I received my new heart. I was 385 days on the […]
Todd Lawrence – Kidney/Pancreas Recipient
Todd is a very grateful 13 yr Kidney/Pancreas transplant recipient (March 2002) and a 7 yr Quad-By-Pass survivor. After 21 years of the daily challenges with Type 1 (insulin-dependant) Diabetes, Todd’s kidneys began to fail him, and he was placed on Dialysis (a process which cleanses your blood of toxins). Todd was on the transplant […]
Christine Jowett – Liver Transplant Recipient
I am new to the Kitchener-Waterloo area as I was born in Belleville Ontario and have lived in Canada, the United States and the Netherlands. I am employed at St. Mary’s Hospital in Kitchener as a Cardiology RN. Having a medical background certainly made the medical aspects of my transplant journey easier […]
Don Stewart – Volunteer
I’m here today to encourage you and others to sign anorgan donation consent registration so that one day you may possibly be able to save someone else’s life. In fact, one person can save up to 8 other lives through organ and tissue donation. Unlike most of the other people here at this booth, I’m […]
Amanda VanderHarst – Double Lung Recipient
Diagnosed at the age of 9months with Cystic Fibrosis meant many hours spent doing therapy each day. Despite this exhausting disease, I never let it stop me from being a kid, nor did my mom and dad. Life was as normal as it could be until my lungs started to fail; every little thing […]
Kelly Kleinschmidt – Liver Transplant Recipient
It was an incredible relief (and a very scary day) when I was placed on the transplant list on November 5, 2010. That very day, family and friends began faxing in “applications” to be considered as live donors for me. I was very fortunate and grateful to not have to wait on the transplant […]
Candice Coghlan – Kidney Recipient
Candice is a Kidney transplant recipient (September 9, 2009) from Cambridge, ON. She is currently the Fund Development Officer for the Kidney Foundation of Canada, Western Ontario Branch. Candice is currently finishing up her degree of English & Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph and will be graduating in August 2012. Candice is very […]
Lori & Don Kraemer – Paired Exchange
Lori grew up in Waterloo Region, mainly in the Kitchener and Cambridge area. She has a very loving and caring family, married to Don Kraemer and a proud mother of three wonderful children, twins, named Meghan and Kaylie and a son, Nathan. Lori was diagnosed with kidney disease at a young age. The mother of […]
