Calgarian makes a life-saving plea on World Organ Donation Day
CTV
August 13 marks World Organ Donation Day across the globe. It's a day meant to raise awareness about the importance of donation and to provide a platform for discussing everything to do with the procedures.
Jonathan Ferguson says the lead up to his thirtieth birthday was spent being misdiagnosed.
He never quite felt right: and it took him years before anyone was able to correctly identify why.
It wasn't good news.
"I was diagnosed with a rare liver disease called Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis, or PSC," Jonathan told CTV News. "I looked awful. I had jaundice, I was very gaunt. It wasn't fun."
Looking back Sunday, 13 years later, the Calgarian says it flipped not only his health on its head, but his life outlook.
"It became about family and travel," he says. "I visited 80 counties, a lot of them with my mom."
But eventually, PSC slowed him down. And he was faced with a tough situation: Jonathan needed a transplant, and time was limited.