5 years after heart transplant, Winnipeg woman asks Manitobans to talk about organ donation

She calls it her "re-birthday": the anniversary of the day she received a heart transplant that saved her life.

Kristin Millar celebrates her re-birthday every year on Jan. 6. This year marks No. 5 since she underwent the operation in Ottawa, the culmination of two years on a waitlist.

She'd already had one false alarm when doctors realized a potential heart wouldn't work, so she reserved most of her excitement until she was in the Ottawa hospital and found out for sure.

"I will remember that moment," Millar said.

"We still didn't know if the heart was good or not, and the nurse came in and she said, 'It's good. The heart's good.'"

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Just a few days before her fifth re-birthday, legislation in France came into force, strengthening the country's "presumed consent" policy. Everyone is now is presumed to be an organ donor unless that person takes the time to opt out of the program.

Millar said it's a significant step, and while not everybody will agree with it, she wants Canadians to talk about it.

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"I think that everyone should be able to have their own opinions about things. I think no one should ever be forced to donate their organs, or feel like they're being forced to donate organs," she said.

"The only thing that I ask is to think about it and to have that conversation."

Five years after her transplant, Millar said she is "incredibly healthy." She works full-time as a social worker at a Winnipeg hospital and is an advocate for organ donation in Manitoba.

"I know that I would like to have more people receive organs. I would like to see more people live, and if this system would help to do that without infringing on people's rights, then I think that would be great," she said.

Millar said the biggest obstacle for advocates encouraging organ donors is a lack of awareness.

"For so long we had told people to sign the back of their driver's licence. We now don't have that on our driver's licence. We can tell people to sign the back of their Manitoba health card. But if you don't have the conversation, people are most likely to say no," she said.

"The hardest thing is when families don't know, and they're most likely to say no. It's a huge gift when people have made those wishes known before."

If you want to become an organ donor in Manitoba, you can sign up online.