‘I feel really lucky’: St. Thomas girl recovering after receiving lifesaving liver transplant from stranger

A St. Thomas girl is in recovery after receiving a liver transplant from a stranger last month. CTV's Brent Lale with the story.

Melissa Deardon was scrolling Facebook when she saw a cry for help from Ryan Wagg.

The St. Thomas, Ont., father was desperate to find a liver donor who met the criteria for his 12-year-old daughter Lily.

The post had been shared thousands of times, reaching across the country.

“I’m reading this story and my heart just went out, and I thought, what if this was one of my children?” said Deardon, a 39-year-old realtor from Hamilton. “I have O-positive blood, I’m under 50 and I am a tiny human, so I’m just going to fill out these forms and see.”

Hours later, she received a request to upload recent blood work and then got a call to come to hospital for an MRI.

It was at that moment she decided to tell her partner.

“I said, ‘I’ve done something,’” joked Deardon. “I think I might be donating my liver. He said, ‘I’m sorry you did what?’”

She explained how she saw Wagg’s post online and eventually her husband got on board with the idea.

“I have five kids, so it was a big decision to make, but there were no roadblocks and every door just opened. The stars just aligned,” she explained.

The news was a massive relief for the Wagg family.

“It’s been kind of a whirlwind of emotions,” said Ryan Wagg.

Lily went in for surgery on Feb. 6, 2026, just two weeks after he posted online looking for a donor.

“We went from saying goodbye to her in the pre-op room at about 10 a.m. to not getting a chance to see her until midnight, in the ICU,” said Wagg. “There’s two nervous parents’ kind of pacing back and forth and trying to figure out what to do with ourselves.”

The surgery went well, with Lily and Deardon both beginning their recovery. The liver will fully regenerate for both parties in about eight to 12 weeks.

Lily spent a couple of weeks at SickKids hospital in Toronto and then was able to walk out, crossing the finish line surrounded by staff.

She has been at Ronald McDonald House since late February.

“I definitely feel really lucky,” said Lily. “I guess I didn’t really feel like I would make it. There was sometimes where I got down on myself.”

Lily is working her way back to full health.

“I’m getting better at walking up stairs and coming downstairs,” she said. “I’m pretty good at both but running definitely needs to be worked on.”

As for Deardon, she’s working her way back to full health.

“I think there needs to be more awareness around this because I sacrificed five days in the hospital and I sacrificed maybe a week of my life where I was uncomfortable,” said Deardon.

She continued, “I wasn’t really in pain. It was maybe two weeks max of just laying watching movies, having my support team help me out. All to be able to see a little girl, see her 16th birthday and graduate and go on to have a family. I think that if more people understood and knew about this program that we could see more people sign up.”

Deardon says her surgeon told her there are approximately 30 to 40 children right now at SickKids who need a liver or kidney. She says she also received help from the Trillium Program, which allowed her husband to stay close without incurring much financial cost.

Lily’s parents are still coming to grips with the fact that a total stranger saved their daughter’s life.

“It melts my heart knowing that there’s somebody out there that would have risked their life to give our daughter a second chance,” said Alicia Wagg, Lily’s mom. “We’re forever grateful.”

The couple has stayed in contact with the Deardon family and there are plans to eventually meet in person.

“It’s wonderful now to almost feel like they’re part of our family for what they did for us and for what they did for Lily,” said Ryan.

If recovery continues to go well, Lily is hoping to return home to St. Thomas at the end of March.

She’s looking forward to getting back to her normal routine which includes the upcoming softball season.

“Definitely getting back to school because I miss my friends,” said Lily. “That’s going to probably be the main one and baseball, that’s for sure.”

When she does get home, they will continue to monitor her bloodwork to make sure the new liver responds to her autoimmune hepatitis diagnosis.

“She’s half the weight she was when she went into surgery,” said Alicia. “It’s big to see how far she’s come in those four weeks of getting a new liver and how sick she was to now really kind of like how healthy she is standing here today.”