Transplant recipients visited Vernon Jubilee Hospital on Tuesday, dropping off popcorn to say thank you to the health-care workers who help facilitate deceased organ donations.
It’s part of BC Transplant’s Operation Popcorn, which has been running for more than three decades.
“Health-care providers in critical care areas and operating rooms typically only see the donation side of things and not how it can impact the lives of those waiting for transplants,” said Jenna Baker with BC Transplant.
“(Operation Popcorn) is a way to come back and say thank you to them and show them that the hard work and dedication they have towards organ donations in the hospitals pays off and it helps to save a life on the other end.”
Taking part is very meaningful for Kelowna transplant recipient Matt Scaife, who has been involved with BC Transplant and Operation Popcorn since his first transplant 21 years ago.
Scaife required two liver transplants due to an autoimmune disease.
The father and grandfather says he owes the past two decades of his life to organ donation.
“Both times these (transplants) are literally life-saving measures that allow me to continue in my life. It has been remarkable, spectacular to be able to walk my daughter down the aisle 15 years ago, and now I have two grandchildren. Life is amazing and I don’t take it for granted,” Baker said.
As Operation Popcorn tours 28 B.C. hospitals to say thank you to health-care workers, BC Transplant is also encouraging the public to think about organ donation.
“They can register their wish on transplant.bc.ca and let their families know if they would like to or not like to become an organ donor so if their families ever face this devastating decision, they would know what their loved one would want to do,” Baker said.
Operation Popcorn has already visited Kelowna General Hospital and will be in Kamloops later this week.
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