Two tragedies in southern Alberta this week have taken the lives of two young women. But the families of Tanya Campbell-Losier and Megan Kondor, who are struggling to come to terms with their loss, are donating the women’s organs to try to turn heartache into hope.
Kondor was a first year student at Medicine Hat College. On Monday, the 18-year-old was in car crash near her hometown of Vauxhall. She was taken to Foothills Hospital in Calgary where she was kept on life support so her organs could be donated.
Kondor’s mom said her daughter was always helping others, and donating her organs just made sense. Those who know the family said they are an inspiration.
“We feel like Megan is not gone and we know she isn’t because she has given life to six other people. I don’t know anything more you could do than what she has done,” Jason Mclester, head coach of the Medicine Hat Rattlers.
Last weekend, Campbell-Losier died in a Calgary hospital after being assaulted in a home in Brooks. Friends are finding comfort in knowing that the 19-year-old’s organs are being donated.
“They get that happiness, that pice of that wonderful girl that nobody is every going to get back,” Crystal Bigstone, a family friend, said.
READ MORE: Charges upgraded to manslaughter after death of 19-year-old Alberta woman
Terry Sawchuck is a double lung transplant recipient. The Medicine Hat man is alive today because a man who was killed in an accident five years ago was an organ donor.
“Just a heartfelt, ‘thank you.’ What can you say in turning a momentous wrong into a right?”
Sawchuck said the two young women who died in southern Alberta this week will be remembered as heroes for saving the lives of people like himself.
“I can’t imagine what they are going through but to know that they can bring life and help others, that’s really good,” Sawchuk said of the women’s families. “I heard about this young woman from Vauxhall and her parents are going to donate. It’s fantastic.”
Kondor’s uncle is also alive today because of a new heart he received from a young man who was an organ donor.
A fundraising and memorial event is being held in Brooks on Sunday to help support the family of Campbell-Loiser. Her 26-year-old boyfriend has been charged with manslaughter.
With files from Michael Popove, CHAT TV.
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