A 20-year-old Barrhaven woman in need of a lung transplant is hoping a Twitter appeal to Justin Bieber on Thursday will spread word about the need for organ donation.
Wednesday was Hélène Campbell’s last day in Ottawa before moving to Toronto to get her name on a waiting list for a new pair of lungs.
She has idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and needs to have an oxygen tank at her side to do the simplest task.
The trip to Toronto with her mother, Manon Roy Campbell, will be an anxious one since her close friends have organized an organ-donor- awareness campaign on Twitter and are hoping Bieber will promote it.
From 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Campbell is asking all Twitter users to tweet to the Canadian pop star (@justinbieber) with the hashtag #BeAnOrganDonor and beadonor.ca.
“I would hope that Justin Bieber would do a retweet or even just tweet something himself,” she said.
“Even if people get talking about it at the dinner table, then they’ll look it up and register because it’s super simple to do.”
Bieber has more than 16 million followers, so a shout-out from him would mean the world to Campbell.
Her condition has worsened over the past month. She said she feels like a 90-year-old woman right now, but you wouldn’t notice that by talking to her over the telephone. Her sense of humour and positive outlook make the illness appear to be a non-issue.
Her mother has to help her get dressed, and dining at restaurants with her family has become a luxury. Last night’s family dinner at The Works was a special one for Campbell.
She could spend up to two years in Toronto waiting for a transplant. After the operation, she’ll have to wait at least three to six months before coming back to Ottawa.
“Who knows — by then, I might be a converted Leafs fan … not,” she said, laughing and coughing.
“That’s the only thing that’s daunting is the terrible hockey team that’s out there. Everything else is not so bad.”
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