April is National Donate Life Month
30 Days to Help Save a Life: What to Do in April
National Donate Life Month was established in 2003. Every day in April, people across the U.S. make a special effort to celebrate the tremendous generosity of those who have saved lives by becoming organ, tissue, marrow, and blood donors and to encourage more Americans to follow their fine example.
Make it known: I want to be a donor
~Register with your State Donor Registry, if available.
~Say YES to donation on your driver's license.
~Tell your family, friends, physician, and faith leader that you want to be a donor.
~Fill out and sign a donor card, have it witnessed, carry it with you.
~Tell someone: The need is great and growing.
More than 98,000 people are in need of an organ for transplant.
~Each day, about 77 people get the organ transplant that gives them a second chance, but 17 to 19 others die because they did not receive an organ transplant.
~More than half the people on the waiting list for a donated organ are racial or ethnic minorities. ~Chances of getting a transplant increase if donor and recipient share the same racial/ethnic background.
Get involved: Become a donation advocate.
~Encourage your company, association, union, or other organizations to which you may belong to join the Workplace Partnership for Life.
~Promote and support work site donation campaigns.
~Tell your local high school about Decision Donation, a school program that educates students about donation.
~Participate in local National Donate Life Month events sponsored by your local organ procurement organization.
Monday, April 21, 2008
April Is Donate Life Month
With Much Love, Crystal at 11:30 PM
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Over half of the 98,000 Americans on the national transplant waiting list will die before they get a transplant. Most of these deaths are needless. Americans bury or cremate about 20,000 transplantable organs every year. Over 6,000 of our neighbors suffer and die needlessly every year as a result.
ReplyDeleteThere is a simple way to put a big dent in the organ shortage -- give organs first to people who have agreed to donate their own organs when they die.
Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to register as organ donors. It will also make the organ allocation system fairer. People who aren't willing to share the gift of life should go to the back of the waiting list as long as there is a shortage of organs.
Anyone who wants to donate their organs to others who have agreed to donate theirs can join LifeSharers. LifeSharers is a non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. Membership is free at www.lifesharers.org or by calling 1-888-ORGAN88. There is no age limit, parents can enroll their minor children, and no one is excluded due to any pre-existing medical condition.