Organ donation advocate and YouTube celebrity makes a stop in Vancouver

Double lung transplant recipient Hélène Campbell has been traveling across the country to raise awareness about organ donation.

Today, she made a stop at the Vancouver General Hospital.

Two years ago, Campbell was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis.

Her only option was a double lung transplant, but she didn’t just sit back and wait.

Through social media, she captured the attention of singer Justin Bieber and his millions of Twitter followers, and then Ellen Degeneres.

In April 2012, just days away from death, she received her gift of life, but she hasn’t stopped giving back.

Campbell has established the Give2Live Campaign to help raise money to provide assistance to transplant patients who must travel for their care. For example, VGH does all the lung transplants in the province and those patients have to stand by for up to 12 weeks following their transplants. Those non-medical expenses are not covered by the province.

But the situation is still dire here in B.C.

Twenty people in B.C. died last year waiting, two of them children.

85 per cent of British Columbians believe in organ donation, yet only 18 per cent of people are registered.

Right now, 507 British Columbians are waiting for a life-saving transplant.

For more on Give2Live campaign, go here.

You can follow Hélène Campbell’s blog here.

To register to become an organ donor, go to transplant.bc.ca.

Next week, a special series on transplant research will be aired on the News Hour. Reporter Elaine Yong will be taking an in-depth look at the challenges facing transplant patients as well as innovative ways researchers are trying to address organ shortage.