We're fighting to save lives

In just over a week, more than 6,300 Canadians supported my call to end the 6-month wait for liver transplant for every Canadian with alcohol use disorder. Thank you so much for your passionate response to injustice! We want to raise $1 for every signature on our petition. As of this moment, we have 6,327 people on our side! Can you use the link below to make a donation so we can continue to fight for equality and to save lives? Please chip in $1, $2, $5, whatever you can, to our fundraising efforts! I started with a fight to reclaim the dignity of my husband Mark. My work has since exploded into a national movement that requires full-time attention to help many other families and end the 6-month wait. This week, when Ontario named Helena Jaczek as the new Health Minister, we quickly re-directed the petition emails to her office. Today, we received two more emails from families facing the 6-month wait. We are working to support them in being assessed for transplant. Here are some of our successes so far: - Last week, faced with a court date for an injunction hearing by Eric Whitbread’s lawyers, Alberta Health Services ensured he was transferred to the University of Alberta liver transplant unit in Edmonton. They also committed to waiving the mandatory rehab that stood in his way. - In September 2017, I announced that because of my legal action, Ontario will launch a pilot program in August 2018 that will assess patients with alcohol use disorder without any wait. - In September 2017, an injunction was filed for Cary Gallant, which resulted in an undisclosed arrangement to ensure Cary successfully recovers. - In January, we saw two patients in the United States transferred to liver transplant centres without the 6-month wait after finding the list on our website. Both received transplants. If you hear of someone who is facing the 6-month wait at any Canadian province, please tell them to contact us through our website: www.selkirkliversociety.org/contact. We will help in any way we can! We do not charge to help any family. We monitor email accounts 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, in case there is a family in distress. We advocate, promote our website, assist with legal action and generate media stories to boost all of these efforts. But, it takes time and resources to make it all things happen. The Selkirk Liver Society continues to work to end the 6-month wait. Together we will end the discrimination faced by persons with alcohol use disorder when they face healthcare barriers. We will not stop until every Canadian in every province and territory is assessed and listed for liver transplant like every other patient. Sign up on our website to receive updates and our newsletter. Don’t want to sign up? Follow our Facebook page (facebook.com/SelkirkLiverSociety) and/or Twitter account (twitter.com/talkoutloud).