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Community Corner

April is National Donate Life Month!

Greetings: 

April is National Donate Life Month, a time for hosting events in schools, businesses, hospitals and communities throughout Illinois to educate the public about organ and tissue donation and encourage people to become organ and tissue donors by joining the Illinois Organ/Tissue Donor Registry. 

More than 5,000 people in Illinois are waiting for lifesaving organ transplants, and one in every 20 Americans will need some sort of tissue transplant in their lifetime. As an Advocates for Hope volunteer for Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network and a strong advocate of organ and tissue donation, I call on the public to help us meet this great need. 

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During April, Gift of Hope, members of the statewide Donate Life Illinois coalition and all other organ and tissue donation advocates in Illinois are speaking with a unified voice to encourage everyone to take 30 seconds to register online as organ and tissue donors and give the gift of hope to people waiting for a second chance at life. Just one organ donor can save the lives of as many as nine people, and one tissue donor can enhance the lives of as many as 25 people. Clearly, one person can make a big difference. And one simple action can produce an extraordinary result. 

Take my son Dylan for example - Dylan was in a car accident in July of 2007 and despite valiant efforts to save him, the swelling in his brain proved simply too much and he was pronounced brain dead. The next day, Dylan become a superhero! And how fitting is it that a fan of superheroes gets to become a one? Not many 7 year olds get the chance to be a true superhero.  And, Dylan's super powers have literally reached across the globe.

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Dylan’s heart saved a teenage girl in South Carolina. Dylan’s Kidneys saved a 65 year old man in Kansas. Isn’t it amazing a seven year olds kidney’s saved a grown man? And, this man spent years helping children volunteering at children's hospitals. Now a child - of all people - helps him in return? Isn't that pretty cool?

And, Dylan’s Liver saved a young man. Despite the transplant taking place in Chicago, this young man lives halfway around the world in the United Arab Emirates.

Dylan is a world famous superhero!

And just think, when Dylan's younger recipients have children someday, Dylan's superpower will live on forever!

Organ and tissue donation can involve some pretty deep and wonderful stuff can't it?!

Please help me encourage the people in our community to go to GiftofHope.org to learn more about organ, tissue, eye and blood donation and to register their decisions to be donors. Residents in our community also can register at any events planned at local hospitals to celebrate and promote National Donate Life Month or at any Illinois Driver Services Facility. 

The need for donors is great, again, 5000 people in Illinois, 121,000+ wait nationwide. 18 people die every day waiting. Each of us has the power to change the lives of those who are desperately waiting for lifesaving or life-enhancing gifts of hope. So please, I encourage everyone to take 30 seconds out of one day in April to register to be a donor and to share their decision with their families and friends in the community. 

Yours in Donation,
Dan Richardson
Aurora, IL
drichar768@aol.com
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