Logan Boulet Effect continues as Green Shirt Day inspires organ donation registrations

Awareness is turning to action as more in Saskatchewan and Canada register as organ donors since Logan Boulet’s death three years ago.

Boulet was 21 years old when he died a day after a crash between a bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos hockey team and a semi.

Weeks before the crash, Boulet signed his own organ donor registration card and made his wishes known to his family.

“It just makes me smile,” Boulet’s father, Toby, said during the Greg Morgan Morning Show on Wednesday. “Logan did the right thing.”

Six people benefited from receiving Boulet’s organs. The date of his death, April 7, is now known as Green Shirt Day for Organ Donor Awareness and Registration.

Now known as the “Logan Boulet Effect,” Boulet’s decision inspired roughly 150,000 Canadians to sign their donor cards in the weeks after his death.

That number has nearly doubled in the past three years as an estimated 300,000 people are now on organ donation registries across the country. Saskatchewan’s organ and tissue donor has more than 13,000 people signed up.

Logan’s mother, Bernadine Boulet, says Green Shirt Day provides hope to people waiting to receive a transplant.

“There are so many that are waiting for organs. They’re waiting for their life to be better and to not be on dialysis and not to be on an oxygen tank,” she said.

According to figures from the Canadian Transplant Association, 90 per cent of Canadians say they support organ donation, yet only 23 per cent have registered their decision.

Bernadine says registration is a quick and easy process that can change lives.

“It’s something that you can do to give back, and it doesn’t take long at all to become a registered donor,” she said.

Saskatchewan Health Minister Paul Merriman said initiatives like Green Shirt Day have helped raised awareness of organ donation in the province.

Since 2016-17, the organ donation rate in Saskatchewan has nearly doubled from 14 deceased organ donations per year to 25 deceased organ donations in 2020-21.

After three consecutive years of growth, Saskatchewan’s organ donation rate is “now comparable to the Canadian average,” a Government of Saskatchewan news release said.

“This is a hopeful sign for individuals and families awaiting a transplant,” said Merriman.

“A lot of hard work has gone into raising awareness of the need for organ donation, and it is encouraging to see that translate into more donations.”

The province launched its online organ and tissue donation registry last September.

Anyone 16 years old or older can register to be an organ donor. One organ donor can save up to eight lives and one tissue donor can help as many as 75 people.

With no ability to plan any large-scale events due to COVID-19 restrictions, Bernadine said plans and the awareness surrounding organ donation have reached a new level in the pandemic.

“It just seems to have taken off a lot more this year,” she said.

“People are prepared, companies have pushed for their employees to wear green. I think it’s going to be a great day. There will be lots of green out there.”