Canadian crooner Justin Bieber has answered the call to help a 20-yearold Barrhaven woman's campaign to raise awareness of organ donation.
Bieber responded to a Twitter campaign started by Hélène Campbell to encourage people to register their consent for organ donation by retweeting one of her tweets, making it visible to his 16 million followers.
"Hey @justinbieber! I BELIEB you should use that Canadian voice of yours and help save lives like mine," Campbell wrote, adding the hashtags #beanorgandonor and #giveblood, as well as the beadonor. ca website address.
As well as retweeting her message, Bieber, who is currently in California recording an album, added three messages of his own. "i got the word .... You have amazing strength. I got u," his first tweet, posted at about 3 a.m. EST Saturday, said. He then urged his followers to "help spread the word," and included Campbell's blog URL, alungstory.ca. He subsequently sent Campbell another note - "NEVER SAY NEVER," - repeating the title of a song from his My Worlds Acoustic album.
"What he did was far beyond what we wanted him to do," an elated Campbell said from Toronto, where she is waiting for a lung transplant. "He told all his fans, 'I want you to do this for me.'
"This means that awareness is being raised," she added. "It means that when you dream big and never say never - his words, not mine - we can attain amazing things. I'm just super-encouraged; I had a goal to raise awareness, to reach out to more people, and that goal was met."
She's uncertain about her next step. She'd like to get her hero, comedian and TV host Ellen DeGeneres, involved, but on Saturday was spending her time putting together a thank-you video for Bieber, to put up on her blog.
"It doesn't stop here," she promised. "We'll let (Bieber's) fans do their thing, and I'm going to think of something else to come up with."
Campbell's crusade, in which she urged people to tweet Bieber's Twitter account on Wednesday, helped spark a fourfold increase in visitors on Thursday to beadonor.ca, the website of Trillium Gift of Life Network, the organization the oversees organ donations and transplants in Ontario.
Bieber's musical director and guitarist, Ottawaborn Dan Kanter, responded Thursday, while Juno Awardwinner Bif Naked, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty also helped the cause by getting involved Friday.
Kanter, who has watched Campbell's videos and followed her tweets, said he felt it was important to get involved, especially since he is from the area. Reached in Miami on Saturday, he said he was glad to see Bieber join in.
"I was very happy when I saw that Justin had posted several tweets about it. He is incredibly hard working and a very special person. I'm always amazed that no matter how busy he is, Justin and his manager, Scooter Braun, always make time for charity and to support important causes. Even in this case where just a few tweets are so important because they can reach millions of people."
Campbell said she would have understood if Bieber had not responded, citing concerns that must weigh heavily on the celebrity.
"He has to think about it strategically," she said. "He's a really big star, and if he starts to say one thing, then people might come at him for another."
Trillium's website was visited by 1,458 people Thursday, a far cry from the 300 who typically drop in each day. Of those, 326 registered to be donors. That number is usually closer to 50 a day. When reached Saturday, a spokesperson said they wouldn't be able to determine the effect Bieber's tweets had on donor registration until Monday.
"Just the fact that so many people are rallying for the cause, I find that so inspiring," said Campbell on Friday. "More than 300 people registered to be donors on Thursday, and each one of them can save eight lives. That's a possibility of a lot of lives being saved."
Campbell learned in July that she suffers idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. In October, her lung capacity was measured at just 24 per cent, and she was told then that she would need a transplant. The average wait time for lungs in Ontario is between six and 24 months.
source: ottawa
