Forty Albertans were recognized Sunday afternoon for giving a part of themselves to help save someone else’s life. Give Life Alberta, the province’s organ and tissue donation program, hosted a celebration for living donors at the University of Alberta Hospital. All 40 recipients of the recognition donated a kidney or part of their liver between 2022 and 2025. One of them was Caitlin Garcia. The neonatal intensive care unit nurse donated part of her liver to a stranger, saving the person’s life. Garcia said donating simply “felt like a thing I could do.” “I feel like there’s so much to be sad about and angry about in the world, and the move is always, ‘Just do what you can in the moment you can do it,’” she told CTV News Edmonton. The stranger in Garcia’s case was two-year-old Mia Sanderson. The two met for the first time a month ago. “I just wanted to thank her, give her a hug and just know her,” Mia’s mother, Angela Sanderson, said. “She’s the reason Mia is here today.” Mia was one of about 500 Albertans waiting for a transplant each year. Only about 75 people make a living organ donation annually. “On the wait-list right now, you’re typically waiting four to five years for a deceased-donor kidney, and with a living donor, it only takes six months to a year,” said Andrew Gillingham, Give Life Alberta’s living donor transplant coordinator. “It’s much faster, you can plan better, and people can get back to life quicker.” With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Noah Rishaug
