Woman volunteers part of liver to help Winnipeg girl

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This article was published 07/04/2015 (3305 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg woman will head to Toronto next week for tests to see whether she can donate part of her liver to an 11-year-old Winnipeg girl.

Samantha Lussier, 24, stepped forward after learning about Allexis Siebrecht, a grade six student born with a rare liver disease.

Allexis’s mother, Liz Siebrecht, took to social media for help to find a living donor and to raise $10,000 in living costs while Allexis is at the Hospital for Sick Children.

“At any moment, I may be paged and we have two hours to uproot our family and leave for Toronto, where we may have to stay up to six months, depending on how well the surgery goes and Allexis’ response to her new liver,” Liz wrote in her crowd-sourcing fund pitch at gofundme.com.

Travel and family accommodation during a transplant and recovery at Sick Kids aren’t covered by health care and the family has to pay bills at home in Winnipeg while they’re away.

The appeal touched the Lussier family. Samantha’s mother, Tina, is a social media maven in Winnipeg and she’s also suffered from liver disease in the past.

In hopes Samantha’s a match, the Lussier family has created its own crowd-sourcing fund pitch at gofundme.com.