Sisters’ Lifesaving Transplant Bonds Mark 50 Years at London Health Sciences Centre
WORLD NEWS – CANADA: Fifty years after the launch of the multiorgan transplant program at London Health Sciences Centre, two sisters stand as living proof of its early impact. Margaret Rearen was among the donors in the program’s infancy, providing the biological material that gave her sister Maryanne Crosset a new lease on life. That operation is now remembered as one of the foundational cases in a program that has persisted and expanded over five decades.
The arc of their lives has shifted since that surgery. Maryanne now provides daily care for Margaret, who is living with Alzheimer’s disease. The reversal of roles underscores the long-term human dimensions of transplantation: a lifesaving procedure decades ago has produced an intimate, ongoing bond as caregiver and recipient navigate illness together today. Both women are present in the community that has tracked the program’s growth.
Administrators and clinicians marked the 50-year milestone by noting the program’s breadth: thousands of successful transplants have been performed since the program began, and many early recipients and donors remain part of the hospital’s living memory. The London Health Sciences Centre reports that more than one-third of its transplants depend on living donors, highlighting how voluntary organ donation continues to shape outcomes and sustain waiting lists across the center’s services.
At the anniversary gathering, gratitude for the gift of donation was palpable and enduring. Margaret is described as having never regretted her decision decades ago and remains willing, in spirit, to repeat her act of generosity. The celebration framed the program’s half-century as both a clinical achievement and a collection of human stories — lives altered by transplantation, families transformed by generosity, and a medical institution that continues to rely on living donors to save and extend lives.
