KIMRAN Boparai of North Delta Secondary, one of five recipients of the BC Transplant “Live life. Pass it on.” scholarship for encouraging their communities to register as organ donors, is one tough cookie.

She wrote in an essay titled “A Second Chance”: “As the eldest daughter in a Punjabi household, the weight of my family’s hardships was placed upon me. I held my mother’s hand after she received an amputation due to a bone infection, supported my dad when he was diagnosed with liver cancer, and picked my family up once again when my baby brother was diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease and renal failure at birth.”

She recounted: “After eight, excruciatingly long years of treatments, tests, dialysis and endless nights at the hospital, my brother, Daya, finally got a kidney. I have never seen my family happier than they were the night they got the call. The following days were spent in a hazed frenzy, preparing for his surgery. We had imagined the day of Daya’s transplant for almost a decade, but now that the moment had come, it all felt as though we were dreaming.”

This inspired her to give back by raising awareness in her school community.

Kimran noted: “The singular choice of organ donation changed the course of not only my brother’s life, but my entire family’s lives as well. Though Daya was lucky enough to match with a donor, there are still countless individuals in British Columbia, and around the world, waiting for transplants that could alter the course of their lives for the better.”

She organized Green Shirt Day and a creative fundraiser at her school where students could nominate a teacher to get “pied” by donating to support transplant research. At that fundraiser, Kimran also spoke with participants about the importance of registering their decision on organ donation. The event created a lot of conversation, which resulted in the school district sharing a story about Kimran and her campaign.

Kimran said: “What I hope to achieve in the future, is to pursue a career in medicine, where I can directly impact the lives of people like my brother, and return the blessing that has been given to my family and I. It is through this realization that I have learned, it is through helping others, that you truly help yourself.”

Indeed, Kimran is truly an inspiration and a role model.