Quebec police officer anonymously donates kidney, changes schoolteacher's life

A police officer on Montreal's South Shore made a selfless decision that changed the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.

Joanna Love is a Quebec school teacher that was diagnosed with severe kidney disease during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Annie Devost is a Longueuil police (SPAL) officer, who wanted to help someone.

"The desire was to give someone life since I didn't have any children, I did not have that luck," said Devost. "I wanted to give life back and that was my way to do it."

Devost said she was in a dark place after grieving the loss of her mother. She heard an interview on the radio with an anonymous kidney donor that inspired her to do the same.

At the same time, Love was on dialysis, waiting for a match.

"They said I had severe kidney disease and I would need a transplant," she said. "I was told five to six years, and so I was like, okay, that's what you have to do because you have a family, and that's what I had to do."

Devost contacted Transplant Quebec and went to the MUHC for tests to see if she would be a good match for someone.

After many tests, she was approved to donate -- but she had one condition.

"I don't want my kidney to go to Halifax or Vancouver, I want it to stay here in Quebec!" she said.

Longueuil police officer Annie Devost donated her kidney to schoolteacher Joanna Love as an act to give back and help another. (Joanna Love)

Love was ecstatic when she was told a match had been found and floored when she found out it was a living stranger who would be donating the organ.

"What kind of person does this?" she said. "This is an extraordinary person."

In Quebec, around 10 per cent of transplanted organs come from living donors, far below the national average.

Living donor kidneys have a far longer lifespan, according to Dr. Ahsan Alam.

Also, a person can live a healthy, active life with one kidney.

"The goal for us is to make sure: one, that they are motivated themselves to be a living donor, we don't want any pressure or coersion or influence to make their decision," said Alam. "The second is that they should be healthy."

Joanna Love was ecstatic when she found out that a stranger had donated a kidney to her after she was diagnosed with severe kidney failure. (Joanna Love)

Love and Devost had their surgeries at the Royal Victoria Hospital, though they didn't know the other was there.

Contact is prohibited unless both parties want to meet.

The women wrote letters to each other and then got together.

"We hugged for so long," said Love. "We had this instant bond with one another."

"I was so happy for her, for her children, for her husband," said Devost.

Devost said that by sharing her story, she hopes to inspire others to donate.

"My mom would be proud of me. I know," she said.

Love also wants to give back.

She got the two matching kidney necklaces with the date of their surgeries inscribed.

"My life has changed completely because of her," she said.