You could save as many as 8 lives if you add your name to registry
By Mark Schadenberg
To be a spokesperson for your specific interest in life is not an easy task.
For the Mitchell family of Woodstock, it's a labour of love to support and talk about www.beadonor.ca and specifically about Ryley Mitchell.
Read my blog entry from January of 2015 below . . . as Saturday, May 28 is an important day in creating awareness in the Woodstock area for people to take one minute and register as an organ dinner. When you factor in the various organs you could donate -- including tissue and your eyes -- one donor can save eight people. The tough part about anyone's decision to register is the fact it places your own existence or sustainable life into question. No one wants to be a victim of a car accident or other sudden trauma which means your own life is over and there is a request to use your organs to save someone else by donating your heart, a kidney, liver and possibly even your lungs.
As you will note by reading the story below, Ryley Mitchell is alive today because she received a heart transplant before her 1st birthday.
Joanna Mitchell
The Mitchell family -- Ryley, Joanna, Jeff and Ryley's brother Landon -- will be in Southside Park in Woodstock on Saturday for their local awareness day, which includes a celebration walk around the park. Many other organ recipients will be there, and each has their own story and each is glad they are able to walk any distance.
It can be noted that the guest speaker will be Danah Bozek. Her story is well known, but you may not know the name well as it was her daughters Addison Hall and her unborn sister who were both killed at Costco in London in 2014. The family was struck by a car that drove into the store's entrance area. After the incident, Addison's organs would be donated to assist others in living.
The Organ and Tissue Awareness Walk begins with registrations at 10:30 a.m. at the pavilion near the all-inclusive playground and Navy Cadet building. Look for the green www.beadonor.ca banners when you enter the park. You won't be able to miss the banners or Ryley's smiling face.
Today, Ryley is healthy enough to climb a tree.
From: What's On Woodstock magazine from February of 2015
Joanna Mitchell says the average of the entire population which has registered as donor is 35 percent, and locally that number is much higher at 42 percent. The Mitchell family wants that number to be 50 percent or higher. By going to the website www.beadonor.ca, it's easy to add your name to the list with the use of your Ontario Health Card as part of the quick authorization / agreement process.To put everything into perspective, the story in the Sentinel-Review notes that today there are 1,600 people in Ontario on the waiting list for an organ transplant.
LINKS:
www.lifedonationawareness.com
www.beadonor.ca
http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/2016/05/25/organ-and-tissue-awareness-walk-takes-place-this-saturday-in-southside-park
http://www.heartfm.ca/news/local-news/organ-and-tissue-walk-all-about-awareness/
Here is my post from January of 2015:
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Thursday, 29 January 2015
Ryley celebrates today - 9 years since heart transplant
Mitchell family continues to promote organ/tissue donation
Add your name to registry at www.beadonor.ca
By Mark Schadenberg
In the children’s cartoon movies Planes, an ordinary crop-dusting airplane becomes a champion long-distance racing plane and in the sequel a heroic forest fire fighting flyer.
In the real world of Ryley Mitchell of Woodstock, she is everyone’s hero as a champion child after a heart transplant when only 7 months old.
Today (Jan. 29) marks exactly nine years since Ryley received a new heart. Today, she is more than a fighter, she is also a runner and a regular child (if you didn’t know her entire story).In the real world of Ryley Mitchell of Woodstock, she is everyone’s hero as a champion child after a heart transplant when only 7 months old.
The connection to the movie Planes, is that a group of families, including the Mitchells and Schadenbergs, enjoyed the Planes sequel at a theatre a few months ago. I didn’t know the Mitchells well then, but now just a few months later, the family is one I greatly admire.
Ryley’s parents – Joanna and Jeff, are obviously very proud of their 9-year-old treasure as Ryley has now competed in athletics at the Canadian Transplant Association Games, winning five gold medals (sprinting, ball throw, swimming, bowling), but on a charitable note donated her presents from both her 8th and 9th birthdays to Toronto’s Hospital For Sick Children. Ryley and proud Mom are both spokespersons for organ and tissue donation.
For her public service, Ryley was recognized last September with a province-wide award -- the Thomas Quinet Youth Award, which is named after a young man who had cystic fibrosis and underwent a double lung transplant, but sadly would later die in September of 2011. Quinet’s parents established the award in his memory.
The link to the entire award story published in The Woodstock Sentinel-Review is below, along with other Ryley stories and biographies.
Joanna Mitchell is today a public speaker for the donor registry or www.beadonor.ca. Joanna has been the guest speaker at many gatherings and co-organizes a local event to bring more awareness to organ/tissue donation, saying there are about 1,500 people currently in Ontario waiting for an organ and that sadly the unfortunate death of one person could assist up to eight others – heart, liver, lungs, kidney, eyes, etc.
Dilated cardiomyopathy is the diagnosis her parents received when Ryley was only two months old. In a 2005 blog entry (full story below) for the transplant association, Joanna wrote about the initial diagnosis:
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. . . When we arrived in London, our tiny little baby was swarmed by doctors and nurses trying to examine her and get blood. Through all the commotion, I remember seeing one doctor standing in the background holding up the chest x-ray and saying “enlarged heart”. I didn’t really know what that meant, but I knew it sounded bad. A cardiologist ordered an echocardiogram on Ryley and, within an hour of arriving, we had the diagnosis of Dilated Cardiomyopathy. When the heart becomes enlarged, it cannot effectively pump blood to the rest of your body and your other organs start to fill with fluid and shut down. With the severity of Ryley’s enlargement, it seemed a miracle she was still alive. I remember asking the doctor if this meant she was going to die. He said, “No, but she would likely be a candidate for a heart transplant”. . .
. . . when she was 7 months old, we could see she was getting worse and we were given the choice of palliative care (making her comfortable until she passed) or listing her for transplant. The choice was clear. Miraculously, only 10 days after she was listed, Ryley received her gift of life. Eleven days after that, she was discharged from the hospital and hasn’t looked back since. . .
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Ryley Mitchell also has a terrific younger brother Landon.
I have never asked Ryley’s parents, but according to a 2012 London Free Press story, the woman who would give a heart to Ryley was an anonymous American donor.
Joanna Mitchell has now met many families that have sadly lost a love one, but donated organs / tissues to improve someone else’s life:
"I know someone had to lose their child so mine could live and that's so difficult," she said, in the Free Press article.
Be sure to watch the YouTube clip below as Joanna Mitchell was a recent guest on the Oxford County Rogers TV show Women Of Courage.
If you plan to register, you will need your Ontario Health Card, and a moment to give a hearty 'thumbs up' to Ryley.
If you plan to register, you will need your Ontario Health Card, and a moment to give a hearty 'thumbs up' to Ryley.
LINKS:
www.beadonor.ca
www.beadonor.ca
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