An Ottawa man shared his story of organ donation at an Easter Sunday church service as Hélène Campbell continues to show promising signs of recovery.
More than 2,000 people were at Woodvale Pentecostal Church for their Easter service, which featured Brian Bloomfield's story of his son's gift of a liver three years ago.
"I'm sure I was only maybe a week away from death at that point," he said. "I had so many tubes coming out of me you couldn't count them."
"I often put myself in the shoes of 40-year-old Josh," said Josh Bloomfield. "What would he think of himself if he looked back and knew my daughter wouldn't have a grandfather, or I wouldn't have my dad? I knew it was something I had to do."
The Bloomfields said they chose to share their story with their church in hopes of inspiring more people to be organ donors.
There are currently 4,000 Canadians waiting for an organ transplant, with Ontario's Trillium Gift of Life network saying 1,500 of those are in that province.
"Jesus represents eternal life, and so we're talking about life also here on earth," said Mark Scarr, the church's lead pastor. "The gift of life - one to another."
"I would love to, that would be my greatest joy is to give life to someone else," said Dorothy Dixon. "That's what life is all about."
While members of the church had organ donation on their minds, a high-profile local organ recipient is showing more promising signs of recovery.
Hélène Campbell's family tweeted Sunday the 20-year-old is doing leg exercises and communicating with an alphabet board when she's awake, just two days after a double-lung transplant.
Doctors had said they expected her to be in a medically-induced coma for three or four days after her surgery.
"We've been praying for her and we just think that's amazing," Scarr said.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Vanessa Lee
