I have tremendous respect for people who save lives by turning personal tragedy into a meaningful gesture of resolve and hope.
Graham’s Gift is an initiative born out of the devastating loss of Graham Redner of Foxboro, who tragically passed away at eight months old over the Christmas holidays.
Prior to Graham’s death, his mother Tristin Redner said he was registered as an organ donor, so his liver and other tissues were donated through the Trillium Gift of Life Network to save the life of another little girl in Ontario.
They are also encouraging people to do the same…and even went to a recent Belleville Senators game to hand out cards with links to a donation page for CHEO’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).
The message is a difficult one on many levels, because no parent wants to think of harm coming to their child, and I congratulate Tristin and the family for turning their own personal tragedy into something that can save lives in the future.
When I worked at Hospice Quinte, I spoke with people who had lost children, and the pain on their faces is an image that I shall never forget – a look of shock, pain, and a profound loss of joy and hope for the future.
Graham’s Gift is a meaningful way to take that pain and try to use it to save others from the same heartbreaking loss, and the meaning that brings and the lives it could save may just be the greatest gift of all.
I’m Paul Martin and that’s what I see looking Beyond the Headlines.
