Canadian Blood Services Logan Boulet Award presented
The Logan Boulet Effect continues as Canada’s Lifeline National Awards presented the inaugural Canadian Blood Services Logan Boulet Award earlier this week.
Earning the award was Shelly Sarwal (posthumously) and husband Randy Tressider at the ceremony, an annual recognition event hosted by Canadian Blood Services which celebrates exemplary donors, community leaders and volunteers for their generous contributions and commitment to Canada’s Lifeline.
The ceremony honoured another Lethbridge resident as Cori Jo Heggie was honoured as a blood donor.
Heggie, a high school teacher, first donated blood as a teenager and is now a grandmother who has completed 95 more donations. She regularly encourages others, particularly firsttimers, to join her.
The Logan Boulet Award recognizes organ donors and donor families who selflessly share their stories, raising awareness about donation and the powerful impact it has for patients and their families in Canada.
Boulet was one of 16 people killed in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash on April 6, 2018.
His decision to become an organ donor inspired more than 100,000 Canadians to follow suit, creating the Logan Boulet Effect as well as Green Shirt Day.
Sarwal was a physician from Halifax, diagnosed with multiple system atrophy MSA. She was the first person in Nova Scotia to undergo medical assistance in dying and become an organ donor. Her story is told in the documentary, “Her
Last Project.”
Boulet’s parents, Toby and Bernadine, spoke via video at the ceremony.
“We are incredibly proud of the decisions (Logan) made and his continuing legacy of organ donation awareness and registration,” said Bernadine. “Logan was a son, a brother, a grandson, a nephew, a cousin, a best friend, a student and ultimately an organ donor. Logan will always be remembered as a creative soul who loved adventures both in his backyard and across the world. He was drawn to art and music and took the time to look, listen and create with his talents. He was a quiet guy, but never failed to light up a room with his quick wit, his huge, infectious laugh and his genuine smile.”
“Her Last Project” shares the final months of Sarwal’s life as she prepared to be the first person in Nova Scotia to undergo medical assistance in dying and to become an organ donor.
“Shelly’s decision to give all she had so that others could live is inspirational,” said Bernadine. “Randy’s compassion and love for Shelly as shown throughout the movie ‘Her Last Project’ is true to service to others in unbearably difficult days, tremendous, genuine displays of kindness from both of these incredible people.”
“Thank you, Shelly and Randy, for your dedication and passion to increase organ donor awareness and registration in Canada through the sharing of your story,” added Toby. “Your strength to open your lives and hearts to Canadians from coast to coast is remarkable in your most difficult times of grief. Know in our hearts and in the hearts of Canadians that your story does make a difference.”
For more information on Sarwal’s documentary, visit @HerLastProject on Twitter.
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