A big kid at heart, you can find Rod Brathwaite at the Canucks’ bench each and every pre-game helping young Canucks fans be part of the game day experience.
Brathwaite is the Manager of Community Partnerships and Hockey Development for the Vancouver Canucks and is also the Canucks Alumni Liaison.
He’s made his life about giving to others and creating memorable experiences for kids and their parents throughout the province and at Rogers Arena. In 2020 he had a life-changing surgery thanks to an organ donor. A few years post-surgery, he’s feeling physically better than he has in 15 years.
Grateful to his donor, he’s passionate about creating awareness around organ donation because many people aren’t as fortunate to find a donor and finding a match is like striking gold. According to Canadian Blood Services there are 4,400 Canadians waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant and 250 Canadians will pass away each year before receiving a transplant. One donor can save eight lives and up to 75 patients can receive tissue from one donor.
"You don't really realize who you could be helping by donating an organ. It might be your neighbour, someone within your family, or someone a million miles away. If you're going to pass on you may as well try to give on the best you can. I really believe that I’m one of the lucky ones and I’m grateful for the organ donor community,” Brathwaite said.
In support of organ donor awareness and registration across Canada, Green Shirt Day is celebrated on April 7th to honour former Humboldt Bronco victim, Logan Boulet, who donated his organs so that six lives could live on. His parents, Bernadine and Toby Boulet offered to donate his organs as Logan had told them in the weeks leading up to the crash he was going to register as an organ donor and was inspired by his coach and mentor Ric Suggitt.
Becoming an organ donor takes a few minutes and can be done online.
Brathwaite found out his heart was compromised after making an appointment with his doctor because he was experiencing trouble breathing. It was discovered that he had previously had a bacterial infection that affected his heart’s ability to pump oxygenated blood.
He was initially put on medication to support his heart function and was equipped with a defibrillator in his chest in case of sudden heart failure but ultimately went on the transplant list in hopes of a new lease on life.
Brathwaite was on the transplant list for two and a half years before a heart that matched became available.
"There were times where I was totally fine playing hockey and could do everything, but I slowly went downhill. The doctor said the other things weren’t working and that they were going to put me on the transplant list. The good thing about going on list when you’re young is that although the transplant is high risk, the hardest thing is the recovery,” Brathwaite said.
His heart function started to impact his day-to-day activities in unpredictable ways. No one ever thinks they’re going to leave work in an ambulance but it’s all part and parcel of being sick and still trying to live your life. Brathwaite says the compassion and support his coworkers and friends gave him through that time was very meaningful.
“You're trying to walk around and you're huffing and puffing, and you can't go up hills, that was really tough,” he shared. “One of the symptoms I had was that I could faint at any given time. One time at work I fainted and woke up with my coworkers around me and they had jumped into action to perform CPR on me,” he said.
In August 2020 he was getting ready for a weekend tee time when he got the call that there was a heart available, and he needed to be at the hospital that evening. Once the call comes in, there’s a 24-hour window to have the procedure done. Together with his girlfriend Deborah, they tried to wrap their heads around the gravity of the situation and made their way to the hospital.
He says there was the added stress of needing access to healthcare at the height of the pandemic when protestors blocked hospital entrances and there were many unknowns about the virus but that the medical team made him feel at ease and took great care of him from intake and preparing for surgery to discharge and through recovery.
Recovery was tough, but Brathwaite was diligent about doing all the exercises doctors gave him and slowly increased the duration of his walks. Having the procedure done during the pandemic gave him time to rest and recover.
“Kudos to the Canucks organization, the hockey community, the medical community and everyone that was helping me through that time – especially Deborah, my brother Fredrick, and my mother and father,” Brathwaite said.
“It took around two years post-surgery to get back to feeling like myself and be able to do more than I had done in the last 12 years.”
He was part of a support group through his recovery and said it was eye-opening to see how many people receive organ donations and how many lives are saved by the selflessness of others.
If you see Brathwaite flying around the rink in the tunnels, shuttling kids to and from the ice, or taking Canucks alumni through meet-and-greets, you’ll see he loves what he does and the payback is tenfold.
“Working with the Canucks, we give so much to so many, but in the same way it's given back to me at the same time,” he said.
Growing up in Ottawa he lived for hockey. Some days he would play from sunup to sundown on outdoor rinks and he and his brother, former NHL goaltender Fred Brathwaite, were always searching for the best ice.
Brathwaite has worked for the Canucks for 14 years on projects such as Every Kids Dream, Junior Trainer, Mini Minor and First Strides to name a few. The goal of these projects is to provide opportunities for children of all backgrounds province-wide to experience NHL gamedays or the magic of skating in an NHL arena.
“It's the working with the kids that I love about my job, I think I'm a kind of kid at heart,” he said. “That's something I'm really grateful for that I got a chance to work in hockey as opposed to other industries and I think working here is kind of where I belong.”
Amidst his tireless dedication to enriching the lives of young fans and their families, Brathwaite’s own journey of resilience and gratitude shines. Driven by a genuine passion for the sport, he continues to give back on and off the ice.
For more information on Green Shirt Day or to register to be an organ donor visit https://greenshirtday.ca/register/.
