Torch of Life touches down in Grimsby: Youth used to spread message of organ, tissue donation

Niagara This Week | Amanda Moore

A bright light shone through the drizzling rain as St. Catharines teenager Olivia Hubert joined Khaled Khatib in spreading the message of organ and tissue donation.

The Sir Winston Churchill student’s advocacy efforts helped bring the Torch of Life, which aims to promote organ donation, to Niagara last week, with stops in Port Colborne, Fort Erie, Welland, Niagara Falls, St. Catharines and Grimsby. Hubert started spreading the message of organ donation before it became personal. Now she is advocating on behalf of her grandmother who is trying to get on the waiting list for a double-lung transplant.

The torch was first lit on June 20, 2000 by then Toronto mayor Mel Lastman. The torch was then passed to someone on the waiting list for an organ transplant and then to Mel Davis, whose son Victor, an Oylmpic swimmer, was killed in a accident. Davis donated his son’s organs and six lives were saved. It is messages like that Step by Step creator George Marcello, a two-time liver transplant recipient, wants to share through the Torch of Life. And how the former fitness trainer plans to do that is by empowering youth.

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