It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Rob on October 20, 2018 at the age of 31 years after a long hard-fought battle with cancer. He will be dearly missed by his mom Kathy McGillivray, dad Craig and sister Katie Sallows.

Robbie will be remembered as someone who refused to let life get him down and always strived to be the best he could. Rob was as ambitious as he was intelligent. He graduated from Calgary’s Foothills Academy, a school dedicated for children with learning disabilities. After graduation, he went on to achieve a Bachelor of Commerce in finance from the University of Calgary.

Rob had an intense interest in politics and maintained many friendships across the political spectrum. He participated in a variety of political campaigns at the municipal, provincial and federal levels. He particularly enjoyed get togethers with friends for ‘Poli-Wings’.

Robbie received a double lung transplant on January 6, 2005. He carried on to be active with the Southern Alberta Transplant Association, raising Organ and Tissue Donation awareness. Rob was also involved in the implementation of the Calgary Transplant Trot, seeing it grow from 30 people to over 300. In 2013 he was consulted regarding Alberta Legislature’s Bill 207 “Human Tissue and Organ Donation Amendment Act, 2013”. After passing the bill, Alberta introduced an online and drivers license Organ and Tissue Donation registry. Rob was on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Transplant Association.

Robbie had been to six Canadian Transplant Games (Edmonton, Windsor, Calgary, Moncton, Toronto and Vancouver), and one World Transplant Games (Gotenborg, Sweden). For Rob, the Games weren’t about the competition, but were about friendship, gratitude to donor families and the celebration of ‘life’ itself.

After his passing, Rob became a donor himself, providing others with the gift of sight. Rob’s family would like to send heartfelt thanks to the Calgary Lung Transplant Team, Dr Joyce Harder and Dr Sid Viner for all their compassion, friendship and support over the years. We would also like to thank the Lacombe/Red Deer Palliative Care Team for the care and dignity provided.

A Celebration of Life for Rob will be held on Saturday, November 3rd at 1:00 p.m. at the Summer Village of Gull Lake Community Hall, 27- Lakeview Ave., Gull Lake AB.

In lieu of flowers, Rob’s friends and loved ones are asked to please consider making a donation to the Canadian Transplant Association, at CanadianTransplant.com (Memorial Donations) or Box 74, Tavistock, ON, N0B 2R0.

Condolences for Rob’s family may be emailed to meaningful@telus.net. Arrangements in care of Meaningful Memorial Funeral Service, serving Red Deer and all of Central Alberta 587-876-4944

• Date : 2018-10-20
• Location : Red Deer, Alberta