Jonathan Hickman talks about the kidney his sister gave him every chance he gets.
“I believe it’s important to educate people about organ donation. You can change someone’s life,” he said.
Hickman says that without the generosity of his sister, there is a lot he would have missed.
“I have two children and I have seen them grow up from high school to university to working in our family business and that’s all because my sister made that unselfish move of offering up her kidney,” he said.
Hickman started life with damaged kidneys and knew that a life-extending transplant was inevitable.
“I was born with reflux and my first operation I was one-day old. At that point in time, I had done major damage to my kidneys. So we always knew I was going to need a transplant,” he said.
The Canadian Institutes for Health Information reported that 1,929 people in Canada received a donated kidney in 2024. That same year, 2,922 people were on a waitlist for a kidney, and 82 people died while waiting to receive a kidney.
But Hickman is one of the lucky ones.
“My mother, my brother and my sister were all matches, and at the end we joked about it and said my sister drew the short straw and I now have her kidney. Of course, she has changed my life,” he said.
Jonathan Hickman says he knows he is lucky to have received a kidney transplant — and that many others aren’t. But he wants more people in Newfoundland and Labrador to consider donating their organs, and wants the province to have an “opt-out” policy. The CBC’s Mark Quinn reports.
For the past four years Newfoundland and Labrador has averaged fewer than ten donors annually, and so far in 2025 the number of people alive or deceased who have donated organs in Newfoundland and Labrador is fewer than five, according to Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services.
As the Newfoundland and Labrador director for the Canadian Transplant Association, Hickman is working hard to increase that number. He says it starts with awareness.
In Newfoundland and Labrador anyone can choose to become a donor by indicating their “intent to donate” when they fill out a Medical Care Plan (MCP) application or renewal. Basically, opting into the program.
Nova Scotia has seen its donors increase after it adopted a “presumed consent” law for organ and tissue donation. Since 2021, every Nova Scotian is presumed to be a donor unless they specifically state they do not want to donate.
Hickman says Newfoundland and Labrador should make the same change.
“My personal opinion is, yes. I do believe that an opt-out program would help increase the numbers,” he said.
This spring, changes to the Human Organ and Tissue Donation Act were introduced in the House of Assembly, but the House closed before those proposed changes were debated.
That means Health Minister Krista Lynn Howell can’t say if the amendments would have seen this province follow Nova Scotia’s lead.
“So those will be conversations [to] be had when the paper hits the floor, but certainly we are recognizing that we want an uptake in donors for those programs. It’s always unfortunate when you hear of individuals who haven’t had the opportunity to have a transplant or receive the organ that they needed. I think once that conversation permeates through society we all recognize the importance and the value of being an organ donor,” she said.
“We always want to continue promoting our organ donor program, recognizing the importance of that to individuals who need organ transplants.”
It’s unclear when, or if, the government’s proposed changes to the Human Organ and Tissue Donation Act will be adopted. If a provincial election is called before that bill is debated, the order paper is wiped clean and any proposed changes will have to be introduced all over again.
For Hickman, it’s impossible to measure how much an organ donation has meant to him, and he’s working hard to pass on his good fortune.
“I’m going to Germany now in August to compete in the World Transplant Games,” he said.
“I’ve competed all over the world, all over Canada, representing Newfoundland and then in Canada in transplant games to help promote the importance of organ donation, but even more importantly that there is life after organ transplantation.”
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