By Lee Griffi, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
A hockey tournament and the search for a kidney may not seem to have much in common, but the two will come together this weekend in New Hamburg.
The annual Kyla Kowalik Memorial Hockey Tournament is hosted by the Wilmot Wolverines Girls Hockey Association. While it has raised awareness for organ donation for 15 years, this year’s event will also spread word about one of the association’s coaches and his need for a kidney. The tournament runs from Jan. 10-12 at the Wilmot Recreation Centre.
Fifty-two-year-old Matt Bell has been behind the bench of his daughter’s teams for nearly 10 years, but isn’t able to participate on the ice during practices due to his health issues. Bell said it has been a difficult task to find a kidney match.
“There are a lot of people in the same situation as me and I am what is called a common blood type, O-positive. People think that makes it easier to get a transplant but because it is so common, more people are looking for that same kidney. It’s a long wait list.”
Bell has been on dialysis since December of 2023. He is able to dialyze at home five days a week.
“Hats off to the home hematology department at Grand River Hospital in Kitchener. They set it up and I did some training for six weeks. I have a machine here at my house. There’s a lot of people afraid of it since I have to do my own needles, but it works well for me and allows me to still coach.”
Bell is on the coaching staff of his 17-year-old daughter’s U18 team and he previously helped out with his 21-year-old daughter when she played. While he said he is hoping to find a match as soon as possible, the goal of the weekend is to get the word out about organ and tissue donation.
“Just awareness. There are a lot of people in the same predicament as me, like a lot. It's important people realize they have the ability to give.”
According to the Kidney Foundation of Canada, there were 817 people in Ontario waiting for a kidney transplant as of Feb. 16, 2024. There were 722 transplants conducted in 2022 with 31 per cent of those from living donors. The median wait time to receive a new kidney in the province is four years.
Kowalik was a Wilmot resident and hockey player who passed away at the age of 17 due to complications from ACL surgery. After her passing, she was a tissue donor. Booths will be set up at the tournament all weekend telling people how they can get screened to become a living donor or how to sign up to be a tissue or organ donor.
“She died of blood clots 11 days after the surgery,” said Kyla Kowalik’s mother, Cecily Kowalik. “Statistically, that’s really late. Usually, if someone has a deep vein thrombosis, it’s earlier in the recovery.”
She added while there wasn’t a conversation with her daughter about being a donor, it seemed like the natural thing to do.
“She was composting and recycling since the age of two. She would even bring Tim Horton’s cups home from the arena because she hated the fact there was no recycling at the time. She knew my background as a kinesiologist and working with cadavers, just that respect. To me, it was a no-brainer.”
Donating tissue may not save someone’s life like the transplant of a major organ, but Cecily Kowalik says it can give greater value to a person’s life.
“We found out through Trillium Gift of Life Network that two girls, both in their 20s, were given the gift of mobility with knee- and ankle-joint transplants. They both suffered traumatic injuries and were unable to walk. God only knows what the mental and emotional health of those girls would be had they not been given an opportunity to live as close to their regular life as possible.”
She also discovered two men who had lost their sight received corneal transplants and now can see.
“Four other people received bones and connective tissue transplants, just from Kyla. I was asked by a grief counsellor what her legacy is and I sat there and had no clue. But this helped initially and still helps with healing.”
Anyone interested in being screened as a potential donor can call the London Health Sciences Centre at 519-663-3552 or email livingkidneydonation@lhsc.on.ca. More information is available at www.lhsc.on.ca/livingkidneydonation.
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