Liz Maxwell’s Legacy: Zest for Life
Liz Maxwell lived her life to the fullest. After a successful liver transplant at Toronto General Hospital in December 1992, Liz went back to her teaching career and a very busy lifestyle that included plenty of traveling with her husband, Mike Trusz, and their three children, Graham, Jaime and Cameron. In 1997, Mike, Liz and the children went down to Australia so Liz can compete at the World Transplant Games. She won a Silver Medal. Sadly and very unexpectedly, Liz passed away on July 30, 2005.
“Liz was very impressed with the technology involved in living related transplants. She felt that a financial contribution towards research was the best way she could assist”, stated her husband Mike Trusz at a recent luncheon honouring her gift.
Around her retirement four years ago, Liz decided to transfer the ownership of a paid-up life insurance policy to Toronto General & Western Hospital Foundation to benefit transplant research. She bought the policy several years ago as a condition for employment at the Victoria Board of Education in Fenelon Falls, where she and Mike met and lived for over 28 years.
The epitaph on Liz Maxwell’s memorial stone reads: "A transplant contributes to the collective unconscious the certainty that there is in this world, in the purest sense, charity and love."
Dr. Paul Greig and his liver transplant team at Toronto General Hospital are grateful to Liz Maxwell and Mike Trusz for their legacy for life. For more information on life insurance and other ways of making a deferred or future gift to benefit Toronto General Hospital or Toronto Western Hospital, please contact the Foundation.
