Smitty’s Oyster House on Main Street Owner and liver transplant recipient Matt Thompson is keeping up his quest to raise funds for lifesaving transplant research and care programs this April in honour of Organ Donation Awareness Month.
Thompson will donate 25 cents from each oyster shucked and served at the Mount Pleasant seafood hotspot throughout the month after 6 p.m. to the Transplant Research Foundation of British Columbia (TRFBC), which supports innovative transplantation research to benefit the lives of organ recipients across the province.
He will also bolster his pledge by donating one dollar per oyster shucked from open (noon) to closing (11 p.m.) on Thursday, April 7 — a date known as Green Shirt Day. The occasion is marked annually by people around the country donning green shirts to show their support for organ donation and in honour of Logan Boulet, one of the 16 people killed in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash in Saskatchewan in 2018. Logan had registered as an organ donor just weeks before the accident, and was able to save or help improve six peoples’ lives through his organ donations.
In September of 2022, Thompson received a liver transplant at Vancouver General Hospital and shortly afterwards launched a fundraising page in an effort to help purchase new lifesaving equipment and fund patient care programs for VGH’s Solid Organ Transplant Unit.
“I am so grateful for all of the support and care that continues to be shown to me and I believe it’s vital for me to do whatever I can to pay it back and pay it forward,” says Thompson. “This April, I am trying to encourage everyone to have conversations about organ donation and realize what a precious gift it can be for those in desperate need of lifesaving care.”
Last month, Thompson also helped organize a successful ‘Shuck ’n’ Roll’ fundraiser at Smitty’s where some of the city’s best shuckers came together to raise more than $2,000 for the VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation and its mission to provide the best, most specialized care for all British Columbians.
