Sammy Khalife, Swift Current’s most outspoken advocate for organ donation and the policy around it, made a digital appearance to Swift Current City Council last night to ensure an issue literally and figuratively close to his heart is well represented.

He presented in support of Swift Current Organs and Tissues Donation Awareness Week, which was voted in by members of Council and will take place on the last week of April.

Khalife, who has been a longtime resident of a heart transplant donor list, talked about his experience with the organ donor system, and his perceived shortcomings of it.

He estimates that he only has one year left living. He's kept alive on the support of a ventricular assist device (VAD), which helps his heart circulate blood through his body. He does not believe he will find a heart to replace his own.

“We have a lot to do, and I’m going to serve our community until the last beat of my heart, believe me.”

He says that he wants to see changes made to Saskatchewan’s organ donation system, as well as added awareness for organ donation.

Khalife, also the SCAMA Swift Current and Area Ministerial Association (SCAMA) Refugee Committee media and public relations coordinator, said that he wants the province to implement an opt-out organ donation system instead of an opt-in system.

He brought up the fact that countries that have implemented this program even experience an overage in transplant organs.

He says that this would allow Saskatchewan’s healthcare system to save the lives of those like him in desperate need of organs. Khalife adds that he wants the advocation for the system and his advocacy for increased organ donation to be the legacy he leaves behind.

He brought up the fact that countries that have implemented this program even experience an overage in transplant organs.

While his battery-powered VAD keeps him alive, he says that the life it gives him can have complications.

“It’s not a treatment, it's a life-sustaining therapy...life on batteries is not fun. I don’t wish it on my worst enemy.”

“I don’t want to see my loved ones, I don’t want to see my community, the ones that I care about, kids… I don’t want to see anyone have it.”

He says the VAD applies pressure physically, financially, and mentally.

“I want to believe nothing will go wrong, but the chance is there, and a high chance. Movement, the way you sleep, anything, can lift or make the position of this pump move, and you die. You don’t live after a VAD accident.”

A digital meeting today at 12:30 p.m with Swift Current MLA Everett Hindley is set to be hosted live on the Help a Heart Fundraiser Facebook page. In the meeting, Khalife hopes to get answers on the progress introducing an opt-out program has made since he discussed it with Hindley a year ago.

“I want to make sure everyone is accountable in that case, I don’t want anyone to tell me this or that. No, I want action. Time isn’t there to waste. People are getting sicker and sicker every day.“

“I wanted to leave that with the [City] Council, I want to do that for my community. When it’s time for me to go, I want to leave them with an easier job to do.”

He made the presentation to City Council just a day after three people he knew in Nova Scotia were killed in Canada’s largest mass shooting on Sunday.

Khalife went to school in the province and spent almost 15 years there.

“It’s really important that people know about it and talk about it,” he said about his appearance at City Council.

He admitted that the shooting made him emotional during the meeting, but his passion for the issue made him happy for the opportunity.

He said he hopes COVID-19 does not take steam away from the movement as lives are still at stake and he would like to see a wave of change make it to Parliament in his lifetime.

A bill was introduced into Parliament to have the ability to register as an organ donor on their tax forms.

Khalife, a devout Christian, said that his faith keeps him going in his mission.

He plans to form an awareness committee for organ donation and the work he has set in motion.

“After I leave this life, I don’t want my work to go to waste,” he stated after pausing. “I’m preparing the people that are going to finish this road for me if I’m not able to finish it.”