As the holiday season approaches, health-care officials, volunteers and patients are celebrating a milestone in British Columbians giving the greatest gift of all: the gift of life.

BC Transplant said Monday that the province has successfully completed 11,000 organ transplants.

The organization announced the milestone to kick off its 33rd year of “Operation Popcorn,” an initiative that sees volunteers personally deliver festive popcorn packages to B.C. health-care teams who support transplants.

It’s a deeply personal matter to some of the volunteers, like Sue Hurn whose daughter donated five organs after she passed away.

“It was the one, single, faint glimmer at the end of a very dark tunnel,” Hurn said.

“It means everything. Three or four times … since Amy’s passing I have been able to reconnect with one of the nurses in ICU who was with her for the last five days of her life, and we have a bond.”

Up to 100 people can be involved in a transplant, many of whom may never meet the patient they’re helping to save.

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“Health-care teams on the organ donation side often have limited contact with transplant recipients, and those who work with transplant recipients don’t usually interact with organ donors and donor families,” BC Transplant executive director Eric Lun explained.

“When they meet our volunteers at the Operation Popcorn deliveries, it is a powerful affirmation of the power of the gift of life.”

Operation Popcorn will see more than 80 volunteer transplant recipients, living donors and the families of deceased donors drop off the popcorn packages and share their stories face-to-face with health-care workers.

BC Transplant expects to deliver 15o boxes of the treats to teams in intensive care units, emergency departments, operating units, transplant units, clinics and pharmacies at 28 sites throughout the province.

BC Transplant says there are more than 600 British Columbians and their families currently on a waitlist for an organ donation.

The organization is hoping the initiative will help spark conversations among B.C. families about the importance of organ donation, and how they can register as a donor.

You can find out more about organ donation and transplant in British Columbia here.