• Featured Posts
    21 Mar 2017
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    Your donations are helping pediatric transplant patients such as Addison. We are excited to announce the recipient of our National Child Health Transplant Team Grant.
  • Featured Posts
    23 Mar 2015
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    Transplant is not a cure. At least not yet. This is why ongoing, innovative transplantation research is critical. This is where you come in.
  • Featured Posts
    23 Mar 2015
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    Research is about people. Research is about improving quality of life. Research is about changing the survival rates.
  • Featured Posts
    16 Mar 2015
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    Our Venture Grants program funds BC transplantation researchers who are innovative thinkers. Is that you?

About Us

The Transplant Research Foundation of BC (TRFBC) is dedicated to supporting innovative transplantation research to benefit the lives of organ recipients in British Columbia.

Learn More

A second chance at life through organ transplantation is an incredible gift – one that has become an effective treatment for end-stage organ failure. This has all been made possible with the intense dedication and hard work of scientists and clinicians over the past few decades. But transplant is not a cure. At least not yet. With your help, that’s where the Transplant Research Foundation of BC (TRF) is making a difference.

The TRF is dedicated to supporting innovative transplantation research to benefit the lives of organ recipients in British Columbia. Through our Venture Grant program, we provide funding each year to BC based scientists conducting transplant research in new areas of exploration that will lead to better quality of life and improved outcomes for transplant patients.

Breathing New Life

How Lung Transplant Turned a Dream of Fatherhood into Reality

For Nick Kanaan a double lung transplant was not only lifesaving but also life-changing.

A Mother’s Love

Growing up with a life-limiting illness did not stop 30-year-old Ali from dreaming big. Becoming a mother was one aspiration that Ali held close to

A Perfect Match

As a young couple, Niilo Edwards and Rachael Durie have endured more adversity than most people their age. After nearly a decade of marriage, they

The Gift of Time


Transplantation means different things to different people. For Michel Grandbois, it meant over two decades of living and making memories with his family, and

A Life Reimagined

The transplanting of an organ is a complex undertaking, where the generous and selfless decision of one individual and family has the potential to transform
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Personal Stories

Brynn McKenna

Brynn McKenna’s dramatic entrance into this world in an unplanned home birth was just the start of an intense first year of life for the Ladner girl. Her parents, Carmen and Mike, knew their daughter had a congenital heart defect at 34 weeks, but doctors couldn’t be sure how serious it was until she was born. Brynn was immediately rushed to BC Women’s Hospital. Within a few hours, her condition deteriorated and the newborn had her first open heart surgery to install a pacemaker.

Margaret Benson

Margaret Benson wasn’t sure she’d make it to her 41st birthday. But according to the doctors who diagnosed her with cystic fibrosis at the age of 14, she wasn’t supposed to survive past 15. Instead, she defied the odds, not just surviving but thriving. Margaret went on to graduate high school, attended Simon Fraser University, got her teacher’s certificate, found her dream job as a teacher, and got married. Life was great, until her health started declining.

Tom Bradley

For Tom Bradley, 2007 was supposed to be an exciting new year. After 24 years in the investment industry, he was just weeks away from realizing his dream – launching a new investment firm. But the liver disease he had lived with since his diagnosis in his mid-20s was about to take a drastic turn for the worse. After getting rushed to the hospital, his wife Lori Lothian recalls, “He got very sick, ruptured esophageal varices and complications.

Amanda Poch

In March 2006, Amanda Poch was rushed to hospital extremely ill. Her liver had almost failed completely with just 5% function. The Port Moody woman was only 26 years old but had been battling an autoimmune condition that was slowly destroying her liver. She was not yet on the transplant list but as she fought for her life, her medical team rushed to get her listed.

Addison McArthur

“Her only hope for survival is a heart transplant.” Addison McArthur’s parents will never forget the moment they learned their newborn was in a desperate fight for her life. She was just three weeks old. As a heart-lung machine kept her alive, doctors at BC Children’s Hospital scrambled to figure out why her heart was in failure.

Grace TeBoekhorst

By the time Grace TeBoekhorst received the ultimate gift of a new kidney from her father in August 2010, the little girl had already defied the odds. She had faced a rare diagnosis of FSGS, three weeks on life support, complete kidney failure and nine months on dialysis. All before the age of five.