Women who donate their organs to strangers have no regrets

When Tara Di Prato saw a Facebook post about a woman who desperately needed a donor to give her a body part, she knew she was going to be a life saver.

Two days after this, an opportunity arose that I knew in my body and soul that I had to do it."

The person in need was Farah Ali, a wife, mother and grandmother from Napeh, suburb of Atawa, whose disease was disabling due to complications of hepatitis C. In addition to cirrhosis, at that time Ali was 60 years old and had cancer that was too advanced to be surgically removed.

Two years ago this month, Di Prato gave a part of his body to Ali. One of the small groups of living donors is making strides to help solve the dead in Canada, which lags far behind the likes of Spain, Portugal, France, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Donors like DiPrato need organs and cite the feeling of helping save a life as a reason to donate that requires major surgery and recovery. Living donors can either share a kidney, a lobe, a whole lung, or part of your body.

Of the 2,936 organ transplants performed in Canada in 2022, 20 percent were living donors, according to data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). In the same year, about 273 people died while waiting for an organ transplant.

Among transplants from living donors, just under half were unrelated recipients. That's a significant development, says Dr. Nazia Selzner, a transplant specialist and medical director of living transplants at University Health Network in Toronto. who founded it in 2000. "In 2005, a man came and challenged our program at the time, and we asked why I couldn't donate to someone with whom he had a biological or emotional connection."







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