Yellowknife (Apr 27/05) - It didn't take a heart transplant to save Pat Donahue's life. It took two.

So it may be an easy attempt to convince the healthy-looking 50ish man there is every reason to donate one's organs after death.

"There are so many people who can be helped, just from one person," Donahue, from Medicine Hat, Alberta, said of the decision to donate organs.

"The biggest fear is getting your family together and saying 'if anything ever happens to me, this is what I want done'."

Donahue was in Yellowknife last week as a guest speaker for various presentations during Organ Donation week.

Living in the NWT should not deter people from deciding to donate their organs, he noted. Cost, for example, is not a factor. Edmonton hospitals will pay to fly your body - kept on life support - to the city where organs and other life-saving body parts from skin to eye tissues can be used among a large number of waiting patients.

"But you can sign your donor card, and if you happen to end up on life support and your family is not in sync with what your wishes are, it's not going to happen," Donahue said.

Having close brushes with death has made a difference in Donahue's life, however.

"All of a sudden, now I have lots of time for everybody and everything such as the small details you take for granted when you are so busy in the corporate world that you don't even see them, like nature," Donahue explained.

"Unfortunately, sometimes it takes something like this to wake us up to let us know what life is all about."

Greg Loftus of Yellowknife is another such person who benefitted from organ donation through a transplant.

"I had a double kidney transplant in 1997," Loftus said of this own experience.

Loftus was instrumental in forming the Paddlers for Parts association which raises money for the Kidney Foundation of Canada - in part, through hosting the WaterWalker film festival, held last Saturday in Yellowknife.

"For the people who need organs, it's very important. Without them, they die," he said of the impact of organ donation. "If you have the potential to save eight or nine lives by your death, not to use them seems ridiculous."