Woman waits for life-saving call - Canada

Salut Star | Michael Purvis


Nancy and Lou Salvalaggio are waiting in Toronto for Nancy to receive a double lung and liver transplant. The Torch of Life will be in Sault Ste. Marie on Thursday in Nancy's honour.

Each time Nancy Salvalaggio visits Toronto General Hospital â€" which is quite often these days â€" she is awed by the number of people waiting for an organ transplant.

“I think I’m bad, and I see them and they look worse than me,” said the 59-year-old retired nurse.

Salvalaggio is in a tough enough situation herself. The Sault Ste. Marie native has been waiting in Toronto since January for a double lung and liver transplant, and she doesn’t know how much longer she will have to continue to wait.

The Torch of Life tour will make one last Ontario stop, in Sault Ste. Marie on Thursday, in a bid to rally the community around Salvalaggio. The charity Step By Step and Khaled Khatib, whose 11-year-old brother became an organ donor after he was accidentally shot by an Israeli soldier, has been touring the province with the torch in a bid to bring attention to organ and tissue donation.

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{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}

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