April is BeADonor Month and Northumberland’s Sarah Marshall has an inspiring message for all
Most of us support improving and saving lives through organ and tissue donation, but only a fraction of us actually take the time to register online.
This gap between good intentions and actions has real-world consequences.
While thousands of people have received the gift of life, others have died waiting because there are simply not enough organs to meet the need.
Sarah Marshall is a local woman who is here today because she received the gift of life 21 years ago. She’s a dedicated advocate for organ and tissue registration, speaking every opportunity she gets about the gifts that are in each of us to give if we take a few minutes to register.
The youngest multi-organ transplant recipient in the world (she has the Guinness Book of World Records certificate to prove it!) Sarah was born in Cobourg on Valentine’s Day in 1997, five and a half weeks early.
Diagnosed shortly after birth with Megacystis microcolon intestinal hypoperistalsis syndrome (MMIHS), a rare, congenital form of intestinal obstruction, Sarah spent the first five months of her life at SickKids Hospital in Toronto until doctors at the Children’s Hospital at London Health Sciences in London, Ontario successfully transplanted not one but four organs (stomach, pancreas, liver and bowel) into her small body.
Flash forward to today, and Sarah is an outgoing big sister to her brother Austin, and about to graduate from Loyalist College in Belleville with a diploma in business administration. Her sights are also set on her next personal goal: a Public Relations and Event Management Certificate, which she plans to begin this September, also at Loyalist, completing a key step toward her ultimate plan to work in the field of health care fundraising where she will have a chance to give back to institution that gave so much to her.
At a recent trip to Northumberland Hills Hospital (NHH), which she still visits regularly, alongside the specialty centres in Toronto and London, for support managing the ongoing symptoms of her syndrome, Sarah took the opportunity to chat with some of the nurses, doctors and Foundation staff she has grown to know through her journey.