April is Organ Donation Awareness Month. If you haven’t signed an organ donor card yet, you should. Here are some reasons why.
5. You’ll score points with your higher power. Every major religion supports organ donation as a selfless act.
4. Organ donation gives new meaning to the word legacy. You leave behind something far better than money, you leave love and life for people who don’t even know you but are forever grateful to you.
3. Every 10 minutes another name is added to the transplant waiting list. That’s 6 people per hour and 144 per day. At any moment, someone you love could become one of those people.
2. 18 people die every day while on the transplant waiting list. In 2009, 10, 365 people were removed from the waiting list either because they died or became too ill to receive a transplant while they were waiting.
1. There are over 100,000 people currently waiting for a transplant that will save their lives. That number keeps climbing because while 90% of Americans support organ donation, only 30% have actually signed donor cards and followed through by expressing the desire to be an organ donor to their families. You and your organs can save up to eight of them with one single, selfless act.
But you don’t have to die to give such an amazing gifts. Living donors can save lives too. Learn the truth about organ, tissue and blood donation. And to find out more information about all the ways you can give life, visit Be the Match.