Jim's Hearts

Back in the day, there was a game show called the “64,000 Question”. Somehow the number became stuck in our popular vernacular – people say “well isn’t that the 64,000 question” making it seem like a wonderful thing if we could answer it. All that said, the number 64,000 retained a little bit of magic and expectation.

You can imagine our disappointment when we didn’t see fireworks, streamers and flashes of light (not even a little parade!) when our little blog reached and surpassed 64,000 views. There wasn’t a sudden influx of people signing up to be organ donors, and truthfully, Ontario and Canada in general remain pretty awful in terms our citizens who can and should be registered.

The magic of organ donation is in all of us. One person signing up to be an organ donor could one day save 8 lives – lives of people waiting and waiting for their miracle. What is more magical than that?

Bring back the magic. Sign up to be an organ donor. Today.

#jimshearts #beadonor

Upon our death, we leave behind those who love us; family, friends, and those whose lives have touched ours. It’s a guaranteed occurrence for all. Taking your organs with you when you go eliminates the potential for life beyond your own.

We’ve heard from families of organ donors who tell us that just knowing that their husband/wife, father/mother, sister/brother or child was able to help someone else to live is a comfort at the darkest time. They know that a little part of their loved one lives on with great purpose.

Why then do only a small fraction of us consider being an organ donor after we die? This is the puzzle that can be solved by you. Seek to be extraordinary and leave life behind you. Be an organ donor. Sign up today.

#jimshearts

Have you ever been stunned to run into a high school friend after 25 years when you were 7000 miles from home? Have you ever been worried about attending a wedding where you didn’t know the bride and groom, only to find that you knew half the wedding party? When these things happen, we say “wow, what a small world”. It truly is.

You may think that the world of organ donation doesn’t affect you, but we guarantee that you are connected to someone who is desperately waiting for a life saving organ donation. After all, there are more than 1600 people in Ontario alone waiting for an organ transplant. If you can run into someone from your graduating class of a few hundred when you are across the world, you can bet you are connected to someone on the organ donation waitlist.

YOU are connected to this story and you can provide the happy ending. Please, sign up to be a donor today. It’s a small world.

#jimshearts

On this Father’s Day, we celebrate two lives. The first is our Jim, who is alive today and able to spend time with his cherished children. The second is the hero who made the decision to become an organ donor and made Jim’s day possible.

Father’s Day is about celebrating fatherhood, and the bonds created between dads and their children. The first Father’s Day was actually about honouring fathers that were lost. We think it is more than fitting for us to stop and give thanks to the family that is missing their dad today. We hope that knowing his gift of life is beyond precious to Jim and his family gives some measure of comfort.

Honour Jim’s organ donor, and give hope to the over 1600 waiting for the gift of life today. On this Father’s Day, sign up to be a donor.

Happy Father’s Day Jim, and to all our fathers.

#jimshearts

Is it a stretch to consider the desperate need to change our perception toward organ donation to be a battle? For Canada to be our battlefield? We would hazard a guess that those 1500 people waiting for a life-saving organ donation would consider this to be quite a fitting label. Every day, they battle to stay alive and well enough to receive the gift of life from a hero – from an organ donor. Only 25% of Canadians are signed up to be that hero.

Jim has entered into a new kind of battle. It’s a battle of recovery. It is a day by day, situation to situation, and regaining of strength and health after a heart transplant kind of battle. It’s the next stage to which everyone who has ever been on “the list” hope to achieve.

Jim’s hero plucked him from that horribly long waiting list, when hope was starting to wane. No one should have to wait that long for life. The worst part? It’s not necessary. If we were all prepared to be a hero, and signed up to be an organ donor, the list would not be the battlefield that it is right now.

The gift of life has offered Jim and his family the hope they so desperately needed. Now we need to ensure that the 1500 still on the list are not left behind.

Change the way you think about organ donation. Be a donor. Sign up today.

#jimshearts

Late in the day on April 30, 2015, Jim and Marah got the call for which they’d been waiting. A single call wiped away over 2 years of doubt, despair and pain and renewed their hope for life. The call represented both joy and immeasurable sorrow.

The gift of a new heart for Jim is quite literally from someone passing their life to his. The awesomeness of this act, this gift, is humbling and inspiring. Our thoughts are with the family who was brave and generous enough to extend this gift to Jim in their time of grief and pain. No thanks will ever be enough.

As Jim heals, he and Marah and their family will be adjusting their perspective from those who wait, to those who hope. It truly is a miracle – the ultimate gift.

Be inspired by Jim’s story. Sign up to be an organ donor so that one day you can be part of a miracle too.

#jimshearts #beadonor #webelieve

Social media is a weird and sometimes wonderful thing. Right now, it seems to be throwing up an unanticipated barrier to organ donation registration. Many of us post stuff on FaceBook and other forms of social media – this results in “likes”. Do you think that by liking a post about organ donation that your work here is done? It isn’t.

We can’t measure the number of “likes” we’ve generated in the past few years. This comes under the heading BFD. Because really – what matters is the number of new registrations we’ve generated; the number of “wow – I didn’t know about this” conversations….that lead to new registrations; the number of families who agree to abide by each other’s wishes….to support their new registrations; and the number of people no longer on the waiting list….because they’ve received the gift of life, as a direct result of a registered organ donor.

Does it make you a bad person to “like” a post on organ donation? Of course not. Just make sure you don’t equate this with action. The action must be taken – sign up to be an organ donor. We’d like that very much.

#jimshearts

Yesterday was Jim’s birthday. He is 48 years old, celebrating with his family and friends. It was also the 2 year mark of Jim being placed on the heart transplant list more permanently (he had to get the shingles vaccine and the hepatitis A and B vaccines first). We’re not celebrating the second milestone so much. To be honest, the waiting list anniversary kind of ruined the birthday. Waiting for this long is absolutely soul-sucking.

Since we’ve been writing this blog about Jim and his family’s journey through unimaginable territory, we’ve reached a lot of milestones and reached a lot of people. People like you from Canada, US and…Nicaragua; South Korea; United Kingdom; Ireland; Phillipines; Italy; Mongolia; Cyprus; Brazil; Russia; Kuwait and Spain – to name a few. Last week we hit 60,000 views – an incredible achievement for a blog like this. And today marks our 90^th post. That Jim and Marah are brave enough and caring enough about you to share their incredibly difficult story is remarkable enough. That they are still doing it, 2 years in, is terrible.

The milestone we are looking for is the first day with a new heart. We believe that this will happen for Jim. Sooner than later please.

You can help Jim and others achieve their milestones by signing up to be a donor.

Happy Birthday Jim.

#jimshearts #beadonor #webelieve

720. That’s how many days Jim has been on the organ transplant wait list. That’s a ridiculous number that represents so many challenges, worries, hopes and disappointments.

How about 1597? That’s how many people are waiting in Ontario, right now, for an organ donation. The highest it’s been in 6 years. A devastating number that is quite frankly overwhelming to consider.

Here’s a big one: 11,800,000. That’s how many people in Ontario are eligible to be organ donors. Take away 8,700,000 of those people and that’s how many people are actually registered. A mind-blowing and unbelievably pitiful 26%.

And the most devastating number? 3. Every 3 days someone dies while waiting for an organ transplant. Needlessly.

These numbers make us absolutely crazy – but they are a good way to illustrate the insanity of the organ donation situation in Ontario and in Canada.

Do something about it today. Take a number – take 2 minutes to sign up to be a donor.

#jimshearts #beadonor #webelieve

The pain of the organ donation waitlist is only comparable to one thing: the pain experienced by the donor family. (And by comparable, we mean that there is no pain that equals the loss of a loved one.) It can’t be emphasised enough that those who choose to be organ donors and their families who abide by their wishes are heroes of the greatest magnitude.

We all have the ability to aspire to this kind of greatness; to end the waiting and suffering of another – a neighbour, a father, a friend, a son. Be the hero. Sign up to be an organ donor right now. Talk to your family about it so that they know your intent.

Jim and his family are waiting on their hero. Their hope remains intact, because they believe in you.

Be the hero. Be an organ donor.

#jimshearts #webelieve