Ajax honors firefighter who donated 70 per cent of her liver to near stranger

Ajax Town council and Ajax Fire Services honored a Firefighter, Nadine Young, who donated 70 per cent of her liver to a man with a rare cancer she met only days before the operation.

Young has served as an Ajax firefighter for several years. Just before Christmas in 2019, her colleague’s son, Jarrett Singer, was diagnosed with a rare liver cancer.

Singer, then 19, and a University of Guelph Student, had just been diagnosed with Fibrolamellar Hepatocellular Carcinoma (FHCC), that sees only 200 diagnoses in a given year.

Given the rarity of FHCC, there is no standard chemotherapy regimen, meaning Jarrett Singer’s options were limited, requiring a new liver. However, no one in his family was a match.

This led Jarret’s father Mark Singer to ask his colleagues for help, and sure enough Young fit the bill.

After some rigorous testing, the transplant was performed in early May, not six months after Singer’s diagnosis.

Now the Town and Fire services have dedicated a tree to what they call Young’s “heroic act and your service to our community.” A special dedication ceremony December 2 unveiled the tree and plaque honoring Young at the Ajax Fire station.

The service was attended by Young, her family and colleagues in Ajax Fire, alongside Mayor Shaun Collier and town councillors.