This past week, while in Toronto for a medical appointment, Shillane Labbett dropped off the 13th letter she wrote to a family she has never met.

Thirteen years ago this past Saturday, Labbett was given a second chance at life when she received a double lung transplant.

The letter, an annual act of thanks, was for the family of her anonymous donor.

On Monday, Labbett received a thank you of her own when she was one of three people in Ontario to receive the Trillium Gift of Life Network’s inaugural Advocates in Action Award.

The award is given to people in recognition of their efforts to build awareness around organ and tissue donation and transplantation.

"It is this deep sense of gratitude for my donor that has inspired me to help others on their transplant journeys as well as to advocate for organ and tissue donations," Labbett said.

Labbett was among 32 people nominated for the Trillium Gift of Life Network award.

Her relationship with the agency began in 2005.

She had lived with cystic fibrosis since she was 18 months old. When she was 33, and on a vacation in Nova Scotia, she was hit with a massive hemoptysis, where the arteries in her lungs suddenly burst, filling quickly with litres of blood.

She was immediately hospitalized and then transferred back to Ontario.

"I had almost resigned myself to almost calling it quits. It had been a really, really rough few months," she said.

Her lung function was down to 20 per cent and she spent 20 days on the wait list for a lung transplant.

A couple of years after her operation, Labbett and her husband, Simon, joined the Transplant Advocate Association, which helps donors, recipients, and their families and raises awareness about the organ and tissue donation.

Labbett was credited on Monday for her contribution to Kingston’s organ and tissue donation rate rising to 47 per cent. Ontario’s average is 32 per cent.

"That is a reflection of the work you do," said Ronnie Gavsie, president and chief executive officer of the Trillium Gift of Life Network, the Ontario government’s not-for-profit agency responsible for planning, promoting, co-ordinating and supporting organ and tissue donation for transplantation.

"I think you measure your success by the fact that you are surrounded by people who love you and who you love," Gavsie added. "I would measure you success by the incredibly tight link, that singularly powerful sense of purpose that you have, with every breath you take, literally, with every breath you take to promoting and encouraging and educating everyone to register consent. That is success."

Among her work has been organizing 17 registration drives in Kingston in the past year and lobbying city council each year to declare April as Be A Donor Month.

This year, City Hall is to be illuminated green on April 19 to mark Be A Donor month.

— with files from Postmedia Network