Facebook and Donate Life America Partner to Save Lives

May 1, 2012

Today is a big day for advocates of organ and tissue donation! In case you haven’t heard – or noticed yet – Facebook has integrated one’s organ and tissue donation status into its timeline format. This means that millions of Americans will be exposed to the lifesaving nature of organ and tissue donation. It also links registered organ and tissue donors with each other to form a community of donation advocates who have decided to make a difference in the lives of others by taking just 30 seconds to register.

To make things even better, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg will appear on ABC’s Good Morning America Tuesday morning to promote the new timeline feature and encourage Americans to register as organ and tissue donors. ABC will follow up Zuckerberg’s interview by featuring donation stories on World News Tonight, Nightline and Live! with Kelly Ripa. ESPN (which is owned by ABC) also will feature stories that promote organ and tissue donation throughout the day.

In a press release from Donate Life America, President and CEO David Fleming states, “We can’t thank Facebook enough for the organization’s commitment to helping save lives by encouraging Americans to register as organ, eye and tissue donors. We are also grateful to ABC and ESPN for their dedication to this cause and for sharing this opportunity with their viewers. Thousands of lives will be saved or healed as a result of this initiative. We encourage all Facebook users to take a moment and update their Facebook profiles, register to be donors and share their decisions with family and friends. It is a simple way to provide hope for those in need.”

The partnership signifies a giant step for the organ, eye and tissue donation community, bringing major exposure to the need for more registered donors and leading people to publicly identify themselves as donors. This, undoubtedly, will provide hope to the more than 114,000 men, women and children currently waiting for lifesaving transplants.

Be a part of the national community of registered organ and tissue donors by taking just 30 seconds to register at GiftofHope.org. Once you’ve registered, take a moment or two and share this decision with others by updating your Facebook profile!

How to add organ donor status to your Facebook Timeline by the Mayo Clinic:

-Josh Muller, Public Relations/Marketing Coordinator, Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network


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Dick Cheney Gets a Heart

March 27, 2012

Depending on your political affiliation, you may view the title of this post as ironic, disturbing or a reason to celebrate. If you check Twitter, you’ll see a plethora of tweets about the former vice president’s transplant. Many of these are jokes, and a few express disgust by people who say that they’ll remove their names from their state’s donor registry because Cheney is “heartless” or that his status or power manipulated the organ allocation system.

It’s truly unfortunate that people feel this way. The fact of the matter is there’s a grieving family somewhere who said “yes” to organ and tissue donation. When that family decided their loved one could help others through donation, they knew their loved one could help ANYONE in need.

Organ and tissue donation is a final gift from one person to another. This gift does not take wealth, status, race, gender, or any social or physical attribute into consideration other than one’s desperate need for a lifesaving transplant. Cheney waited more than 20 months for his gift of life. This is more than twice the average wait time of nine months for individuals waiting for heart transplants in Virginia (where Cheney received his transplant). This shows that Cheney’s social status had no impact on his wait time or his position on the national organ transplant waiting list. Rather, his position on the waiting list was determined by medical urgency (his level of illness), blood type, length of time waiting for a transplant, body size and location of his donor in relation to his transplant hospital. The same criteria used for everyone on the list.

This leads us to the real issue: There is a dramatic shortage of registered organ and tissue donors in the United States. A wait time of 20 months, or even nine months, is far too long for many people waiting for the gift of life. Unfortunately, many potential recipients—more than 300 of whom are waiting for hearts—are unable to survive this wait and die before a lifesaving organ becomes available. If more people simply said “yes” to donation, then fewer people like Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lacy J. Banks or Justin Sipe, a 23-year-old college student from South Carolina, would die waiting.

Before you take your name off of your state’s donor registry or spread falsehoods about organ/tissue donation, please consider that these actions will only lengthen the wait for the more than 113,000 Americans in need of lifesaving organ transplants. Please take a few moments to learn more about organ/tissue donation before rushing to judgement and taking any actions.

You can find an abundance of information about organ/tissue donation at GiftofHope.org (or DonateLifeAmerica.net if outside of Illinois).

-Josh Muller, Public Relations/Marketing Coordinator, Gift of Hope

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Donate Life Illinois Featured in “I Am Hope” Campaign

February 24, 2012

Next week, Donate Life Illinois will be featured in the national “I Am Hope” campaign. The “I Am Hope” initiative is part of Donate Life America’s “20 Million in 2012” campaign focused on registering 20 million Americans as organ and tissue donors in 2012.  Each state (plus Washington, DC and Puerto Rico) has been assigned a week of the year to feature seven local inspiring stories, one for each day of the week.

 
“I Am Hope” Video from Donate Life America

From Sunday February 26 to Saturday March 3, Donate Life America will feature stories from Illinois. We will be sharing stories of donation experiences from Illinois with Donate Life America and its Donate Life partners throughout the country.

Check the Donate Life Illinois Facebook Fan Page to view our “I Am Hope” stories next week!

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Illinois Partners with Donate Life America to Register 20 Million in 2012

January 11, 2012

We need your help to register 20 million Americans as organ and tissue donors in 2012!

Jessica Melore celebrated her 30th birthday on January 4, a milestone she wasn’t sure she’d live to experience. At 16, Jessica received a lifesaving heart transplant. Her story of hope and survival helps to launch Donate Life America’s bold new initiative: “20 Million in 2012.”

Donate Life America — the national organization promoting organ, eye and tissue donation in the United States – designed its “20 Million in 2012” initiative to focus on dramatically increasing the number of people registered in state donor registries. This official launch of the campaign comes on the heels of DLA’s announcement during the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena  where it has sponsored the Donate Life float each year since 2004. This year’s float again featured inspirational stories of organ donors and their families, a tradition that the “20 Million in 2012” campaign will continue as it features powerful stories of people affected by organ, eye and tissue donation.

“I am so proud to be a part of the campaign’s “I am HOPE” storytelling project,” says Melore. “Real-life stories like mine often inspire people to sign up to be organ, eye and tissue donors.”

By registering your decision to be an organ and tissue donor, you can give hope to more than 112,000 Americans—more than 5,000 Illinoisans—waiting for lifesaving transplants. “We are committed to saving and enhancing as many lives as possible through organ and tissue donation,” says David Bosch, Director of Communications for Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network, which coordinates organ and tissue donation in Illinois and northwest Indiana. “Nearly 6 million Illinois residents have registered their decisions to save and enhance lives through organ and tissue donation. In 2012, we hope to inspire and motivate thousands more to make this ordinary decision that can produce extraordinary results.”

Gift of Hope and other Donate Life Illinois coalition members will support the “20 Million in 2012” campaign’s four featured national events:

  • The Donate Life Flash Mob on March 24
  • Donate Life Blue and Green Virtual Fashion Show on April 20
  • Donate Life Champions in Fall 2012
  • Donate Life Linking Hands for Life being held all year long

For more information about the “20 Million in 2012” campaign, visit DonateLifeAmerica.org. To register your decision to be an organ and tissue donor in Illinois, visit DonateLifeIllinois.org.

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