Popcorn delivered to healthcare workers at RIH (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

Organ Donation

Local transplant recipients thank healthcare workers through Operation Popcorn

Dec 4, 2023 | 5:45 PM

KAMLOOPS — Doctors and nurses throughout B.C. will be chowing down on popcorn this week as transplant recipients say thank-you to the healthcare workers who helped save their lives.

“I’ve been here so many times, so many hours in this hospital, so many tests. And everybody has been awesome to me, everybody has been so great,” said liver transplant recipient Tony Maidment. “I have made a lot of bonds with a lot of the technicians, a lot of the doctors, a lot of the nurses. everybody has been so good. It’s just my little contribution to give back to them”

“It’s important giving back just to show how much we truly appreciate everybody working at the hospital and how much their efforts contribute to our lives,” added heart transplant recipient Abby Farnsworth.

Maidment received a liver transplant seven years ago after a long battle with disease. Thanks to the transplant he has been able to walk his daughters down the aisle and be in the life of his new granddaughter.

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“I had a very rare disease called primary sclerosing cholangitis. It’s a disease that attacks the liver. They tried a couple of surgeries that did get me through about 12 years and then everything kind of really rollercoastered from there — in and out of hospital, all kinds of tests and procedures to get me as far as possible with my liver,” said Maidment.

Maidment was joined by Farnsworth at Royal Inland Hospital Monday (Dec. 4). Farnsworth received a new heart when she was just four years old, after spending the majority of her formative years, including her fifth birthday, in hospitals across the country.

“I had hypoplastic left heart syndrome, so I had to go through three open heart surgeries for that, and those didn’t turn out as we would hope, so I had to be flown to Toronto for a heart transplant,” stated Farnsworth.

Both lives were saved thanks to the work of BC Transplant, and through the lifesaving act of signing up as an organ donor.

“How thankful and appreciative we all are. It takes two minutes to sign up to be an organ donor, so you might as well do it,” said Farnsworth.

“My hero did it, and I’m here today. Anybody can do it, everybody can do it, doesn’t matter what your age is, what your health is, there is always something,” added Maidment.

In total 30 hospitals were visited on Monday across the province with more than 120 gifts delivered to staff.