Canada’s hottest musical export is using his blockbuster status to help an Ottawa woman awaiting a lung transplant in Toronto.

Last week Helene Campbell, 20, asked her friends to help her with a twitter campaign to raise awareness about organ and tissue donation. Her ultimate goal was to reach Justin Bieber, with hopes he would re-tweet her plea for people to sign donation registries.

She chose Bieber because he’s from Ontario and has such a large group of followers. “I think it’s good to give awareness to the young generation, and why not use social media to my advantage?” Campbell said.

On Saturday he not only granted that wish, but tweeted her directly with these encouraging words:

“@alungstory i got the word ... You have amazing strength. I got u. #BeAnOrganDonor,” Bieber’s tweet said, reaching his 16.5 million followers.

“I was very excited,” she recounted, on seeing her twitter page Saturday morning. “I jumped out of bed and said ‘Mom, we did it.’ And the first thing she said was, ‘Put your oxygen back on.’ I forgot to put it on, that’s how excited I was.”

Even before Bieber jumped on the bandwagon, Campbell’s campaign started to work in Ontario, where Trillium Gift of Life Network, the provincial agency that coordinates organ and tissue transplants and donations, saw an increase in registrations and hits on their beadonor.ca website Thursday and Friday.

Once Bieber tweeted Campbell’s website, www.alungstory.ca, hits went through the roof — over the weekend and all week, said Ronnie Gavsie, Trillium’s CEO.

There have been more than 1,200 registrations since Thursday, compared with 50 on a typical day, Gavsie said. On an average day there are about 300 hits on the website, but there have been well over 700 a day.

“We are just amazed and so excited,” Gavsie said.

Campbell’s life has been a whirlwind since she was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in September. Just last spring, she had spent six weeks studying Spanish in Spain, despite dealing with severe asthma since age 12 and increasing breathlessness. She backpacked from England to Scotland in June. But in July, her lungs collapsed.

Her doctor had kept assuring her it was only asthma. “I kept pushing myself to keep up, because I thought I was out of shape and that’s what asthma feels like,” she said.

In October, with her lung function at just 24 per cent, she found out she would need a transplant. She was officially placed on the list Wednesday. Campbell’s shortness of breath is obvious and she has frequent coughing spells, but she exudes optimism.

“It’s Robbie Burns Day and I’m a Campbell,” she said Wednesday. “I’m pretty positive about it. It would do me no good to think negatively.”

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis causes scarring on the lungs. The cause is unknown, but it prevents the lungs from exchanging oxygen in the blood.

Campbell and her mother, who took an unpaid leave, left her father, two sisters and brother to relocate to Toronto, to be close to Toronto General Hospital — the only institution in the province that does adult lung transplants. They are living in an apartment near the hospital.

Campbell has been writing a blog on her website and has links to transplant organizations, along with a link for donations to help offset expenses.

Her five-minute video, also on the website, is capturing hearts around the world. Campbell has heard from people as far away as Germany.

Bieber’s involvement has made her a bit of a cause célèbre, and she’s received tweets from Canadian musicians Jann Arden, the Barenaked Ladies, Bif Naked and Paul Brandt. All have retweeted her plea.

But she’s not resting on her success. “I’m just trying to think who will be my next audience to trigger for my next campaign,” she said. “It’s been so positive. Maybe Hockey Night in Canada.”

The story about Bieber hit the Hollywood Reporter and TMZ.

Awareness about organ donation everywhere is important, she said. “We’re fortunate enough in Canada to have such a great health-care system and the technology to do it; they’re just missing the organs. With awareness being raised, it helps,” she said.

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Gavsie praised Campbell’s courage, optimism and wisdom in contacting Bieber.

“Someone at his age reaches out and influences his friends, they influence their parents, and it’s this kind of domino effect that we see” leading to increased registration, she said.

And though Campbell’s need is immediate — along with the 1,500 others awaiting a life-saving organ donation at any time in Ontario, plus thousands of others awaiting tissue transplants — she’s happy her campaign will help people down the road.

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