Transplant recipient eyes the Mackenzie
Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (May 02/01) - One man's bid to help more people get the second chance in life he got continues on the mighty Mackenzie River this summer.
Greg Loftus, who cycled to Edmonton last summer for the same cause, has mounted a campaign he's calling Paddling for Parts.
Loftus and paddling partner Vash Thompson of Valleyview, Alta. will kayak from Fort Providence to Inuvik. They figure it will take three weeks to complete the 1,600- kilometre voyage.
"The whole point is to raise awareness of organ and tissue donation," Loftus said. "The only group that actively promotes that is the Kidney Foundation of Canada."
The event is also a fund-raiser for the foundation. Loftus is approaching local businesses and individuals for donations.
Loftus and Thompson will be calling in reports on their progress from hamlets along the route.
An account of the trip as it happens will be available via the Paddle for Parts link on the Web site for the northern Alberta and the territories branch of the Kidney Foundation of Canada.
A 28-year resident of Yellowknife, Loftus had a kidney transplant four years ago. He is among the majority of transplant recipients who go on to live full, active lives.
Avoidable deaths
According to the northern Alberta and territories branch of the Kidney Foundation of Canada, every year Canadians die waiting for an organ donation.
The Canadian rate of 14 organ donors per million people is among the lowest in the industrialized world.
In the U.S., Portugal and Spain the rate is 20-27 donors per million people. Currently, 3,000 Canadians are waiting for organ transplants, 82 per cent of them for kidney transplants.
Until 1996 there was no organ donor card system for Northerners.
That ended when the dialysis unit at Stanton Regional Hospital brought the NWT into the Human Organ Procurement and Exchange (HOPE) program.
The core of the program is donor cards residents can use to give permission for their organs and tissue to be used for transplants when they die.
"It's a very difficult decision to place on family members at (the time of death)," said Patti Woods, a nurse in Stanton Regional Hospital's dialysis unit.
The cards are available from the board or the hospital.
The high rate of diabetes in the aboriginal population increases the NWT's need for organ donation. Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure.
Making the most
Paddle for Parts will be the latest chapter in Loftus' transplant recovery.
"Mine went really well. There's a lot that can go wrong. The conditions have to be just about perfect or it doesn't work at all," he said.
"Other than the (anti-rejection) pills you would never know. I take about 400 pills a month, something I have the pleasure of doing for the rest of my life."
Loftus said when he was suffering from kidney disease it would take 45 minutes for him to walk from his Old Town home to downtown, a trip that he normally made in 10 minutes.
"Now it's less than five on the bike," he said.
Though paddling every day for three weeks will be physically demanding, the wide and flat Mackenzie River is not a big challenge.
That's a good thing for Vash Thompson, who does not have much paddling experience.
"I don't even know if she's taken a lesson," Loftus said. "I'm not to worried about it. It's fairly easy and she'll catch on pretty quick."
