When someone receives a donor organ, they are given a second chance at life. Yet less than 20% of Canadians are registered donors, a rate that is well below most western countries, despite the fact that 90% support organ and tissue donation.

This gap between intent and action is what National Organ Donation Awareness Month addresses. In 2019, the Canadian Transplant Association and its agency McCann Worldgroup Canada partnered with the Calgary Police Service to help people understand (on an individual level) what it feels like for an organ recipient to have bad news turn to good.

They did that by transforming one of the most stressful situations a driver can face – getting pulled over by the police – into a rewarding experience. For two days, police pulled over Calgary drivers for minor infractions, but only those who were organ donors were given a “Second Chance” ticket – a warning instead of a fine – since they were giving someone else a second chance at life. A tool kit was made available on Secondchancesdonor.org for police everywhere to
implement the program, which was picked up in the U.S.

The “Second Chances” campaign generated over 30 million media impressions and generated 60,000 new Canadian donor registrations in April 2019 (organ donation awareness month), which represented a 300% increase in donor registrations over an average month in Canada.