Troy Chapman is one of 357 people in BC who received a kidney transplant in 2025. The 53-year-old Kelowna resident spent two and a half years on dialysis.
Dialysis was hard for Troy. Each trip took more than five hours. He often felt sick and threw up. “I tried to work through dialysis, a few days a week but it was a pretty tough journey. I had good days and bad days,” he recalls.
Troy suffered a stroke 15 years ago and lost his legs because of diabetes. “I felt like I was slowly deteriorating. I was sick all the time, and it took me further into a dark hole.” After six months on the transplant waitlist, he received a life-changing kidney transplant at St. Paul’s Hospital in October 2025.
Three months later he was back at work and exercising regularly. “I now have all this energy to get active, get out in the bush with my 4×4 and enjoy time with my family and friends.”
He owns a construction business with his brother. “My brother is taking on more of the stressful stuff, but I am trying to do as much as I can and get my mobility back to not waste this gift,” he says.
Troy share thanks
Troy is a father of three boys, a proud business owner, and family man. He says thank you often, especially to his family. Some travelled across the country to care for him after surgery.
He also has kind words for the outstanding health care team at St. Paul’s Hospital. He saw the doctor, nurse, pharmacist, dietitian and social worker on the same day. “Who gets that? We got it twice a week!” he exclaims.
He called the team a ‘well-oiled machine,’ where everyone who took care of him was friendly, understanding and really made the effort. He said he never felt like ‘just a number.’
“Thank you to everyone at St. Paul’s for the professionalism, kindness, and humanity you bring to your work every day. It made a real difference in my life.”
A gift that changed everything
Troy reserves his deepest thanks for the donor family. He knows their loss gave him a new life. “Because of your generosity and courage during the most difficult moment of your lives, my life was saved – and so were the lives of others,” he said.
His donor had two kidneys. Troy received the right kidney. Another person received the left kidney. They gave themselves the nicknames Righty and Lefty.
“There are no words that can fully express how grateful I am. Please know that your gift continues to make a difference every single day.”
Care teams made this possible
Providence Health Care plays a major part in kidney transplant care in British Columbia. St. Paul’s Hospital is one of the three places in the province where transplant surgery happens. It is also home to British Columbia’s only heart transplant program.
Transplant work involves ICU teams, surgeons, nurses, allied health professionals, lab staff and support workers. Troy’s story shows what this teamwork looks like in real life.
BC sets a new record
A record 575 people in British Columbia received organ transplants in 2025, thanks to the incredible generosity of 232 organ donors, including 146 deceased donors and their families and 86 living donors. This is the highest number of organ transplants ever performed in the province in a single year.
Kidney and pancreas and islet transplants also hit new records in 2025. There were 357 kidney transplants, 107 liver transplants, 66 double-lung transplants, 30 heart transplants and 25 pancreas and islet transplants.
Historic kidney transplant milestone
BC Transplant is also recognizing an historic milestone: more than 8,000 kidney transplants have now been performed in British Columbia since the province’s first kidney transplant in 1968. St. Paul’s Hospital has been part of this work from the beginning.
These statistics matter because they show how many people can return to their lives like Troy did. They show how much care teams do every day. They also show how many families say yes to donation.
How to join the organ donor registry
As of December 31, 2025, more than 1,600,000 British Columbians have joined the Organ Donor Registry. It only takes two minutes to become a registered organ donor. You need your Personal Health Number and a visit to registeryourdecision.ca. Talk with your family about your decision.
Read the news release from BC Transplant here.
Read Troy’s full story on the BC Transplant website here.
