Last year my brother and I took our little sister to Disney on Ice. It was a pretty good time and something most any kid would enjoy. A far cry from the Ice Capades I grew up with, to be sure.
At the intermission, my brother told me he’d be right back and when he did come back he was loaded down with nearly every toy available from the event. His colleague’s 5-year old daughter had been looking forward to attending the event, but was sick in the hospital fighting for her life as a result of a serious, and rare, kidney ailment. The folks at the Maple Ridge Fire Department all chipped in to bring the experience as close to her as possible while she endured the fight of a lifetime.
She was able to pull through this past winter and has some prospects for real assistance through a kidney transplant. The issue is that the ideal match, her father, doesn’t qualify for any expediency in having his kidney removed. Unfortunately, as a living donor there are some issues.
Grace teBoekhorst
My brother and the fire department have setup a letter-writing campaign addressed to Minister Kevin Falcon to make amendments to the process so that Grace, and other people in her position with a living donor, have the opportunity to live.
The letter is available through the firefighters’ union page and I encourage everyone who makes it this far to see my blog to just check out the recent newspaper article and subsequent campaign to attach your name to the default letter if you’re not compelled to write your own.
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