Operation Popcorn kicked off its 30th annual event with a popcorn delivery to staff at Royal Columbian Hospital.
New West Coun. Chuck Puchmayr, a transplant recipient, was part of a team that recently visited the hospital to deliver festive tins of popcorn – and thanks.
“This event is so important as it allows critical care workers to meet the patients and donors in a post-traumatic, recovered light and hear their moving stories,” he said. “The health-care participants commented on how much they look forward to this annual event and that they often talk about the experience for months after.”
During the annual event, volunteers deliver popcorn to staff in hospital intensive care units, emergency departments and operating rooms across the province as a reminder to hospital staff of the lives that have been saved through their work.
What started as a small campaign that visited a few hospitals, Operation Popcorn now involves 85 volunteers and popcorn deliveries to 26 hospitals across B.C. each year.
“There are more than 5,600 transplant recipients alive and thriving due to the dedicated efforts of all the caring health professionals across the province who support organ donation,” says Eric Lun, executive director of BC Transplant. “Thank you for supporting organ donors to make these incredible gifts of life.”
In late 2008, Puchmayr was hospitalized and was fast-tracked for a transplant because of his critical liver failure. In January 2009, he underwent a life-saving liver transplant at Vancouver General Hospital.
According to BC Transplant, more than 620 people and their families are currently waiting for transplants. Anyone wish to register as an organ donor can go to www.taketwominutes.ca and quickly register online to become a donor.
