Tiffany Lyons
Tiffany Lyons, who received a kidney donation in May, 2025 after her struggle with polycystic kidney disease (PKD). The National Kidney Donation website explains, “Polycystic kidney disease (also called PKD) causes numerous cysts to grow in the kidneys. These cysts are filled with fluid. If too many cysts grow or if they get too big, the kidneys can become damaged. PKD cysts can slowly replace much of the kidneys, reducing kidney function and leading to kidney failure.” (National Kidney Foundation, 2026) Diagnosed in her 20s following a long family history with the disease, Tiffany went on to get married, have three children, and become an early childhood educator. However, her life was disrupted in 2024 when her kidney failure started to enter its late stages and the need or a donation was imminent. After a long search and many rejected possible donors, in May 2025 a match was finally found and the operation was done, giving her her life back.
The Community
As of 2024, the Canadian Institution for Health Information (CIHI) placed
4,044 Canadians on the organ recipient list waiting for a donation. Of those 4,044 Canadians,
70.1% were waiting for a kidney donation, roughly five times higher than the second most
needed donation, which was a liver. Unfortunately, not all of those waiting on the list received a transplant that year, in 2024, only 3,203 of the 4,044 people on the waitlist were able to receive a donation. The number of transplants was even lower in 2025, with only 3,174 transplants performed, despite the number of waiting recipients climbing to 4,344. That same year, 678 people were taken on the waitlist for an organ, roughly 210, or 31% of which died while waiting. Many of the reasons for this gap can be explained by a case study published by the World Medical and Health Policy titled A qualitative case study of health system barriers and facilitators to living donor kidney transplantation in Canada's most populous province. This study found that the primary barriers that recipients faced were “Inadequate donor and patient resources to support equitable access... Lengthy and poorly coordinated “workups” ... Issues of jurisdictional control... Competition for resources.” (Horton et al, 2024) According to data collected by the Canadian Blood Services, the average amount of time Canadians spent waiting for a transplant was roughly fifteen months from the time they were put on the list to the date of their surgery.
