National Donate Life Month

What’s happening where you are? Individually or as part of an organized activity, ALL of us can promote Organ and Tissue Donation.
What’s happening in your community?

@betsypuccirogers, @kedwards73, @athenalee, @contentandwell, @danab, @silverwoman, @believers1, @livertrex, @jerrynord, @rebekahinvt, @jolinda, @lwilkey, @scottij, @cehunt57, @mauraacro, @mverbick, @zon, @cmael

Do you have a photo you would like to share? It’s easy with the new improvements on Connect!

@rosemarya Due to the pandemic, in our area there doesn't appear to be any in-person events. There is training being offered for becoming a volunteer or an ambassador for Donate Life Northwest.

I was reminded by the calendar, about my Donate Life status. That is, I moved to this state, but am still registered in my last state of residence. Whoops! Has anyone else moved and forgot to re-register in your new state? I have been listed as a donor on my driver's license since I was 16 - a very long time ago! My current state license has it, yes, but there are specific requests I have. Not sure that my kidneys could be donated due to the rare disease, so I want them given for research, for example.

I already have a call in to Donate Life Northwest, since Donate Life California told me to stay registered with them, just add DLN on. That doesn't make sense to me. Is it to keep the numbers up?
Ginger

There really isn't much on the national website, the local website links to the national one. Links don't give much info besides registering as a donor through DMV or their organization. I don't think that donors need a party or prizes but detailed information about donation would be great.

Is a deceased donor easier, cheaper and/or better than a living donor? Is that why there isn't as much information about living donors? What I knew about live donation was mostly untrue and finding information, besides the typical medical procedure, took a lot of searching.

I'd have to go through my post history but I don't think I even found Connect until after my 3 day evaluation and then I needed to make a post to find info about the donor side of things. I didn't know about paired donation until my 3rd eval day. If I hadn't matched my recipient in the initial blood draw, I would have been done with the process at that point and no one would have gotten my spare kidney.

I give all of the credit to the daughter of my recipient for making it easy for me to find out and start the process of donating. She gave a brief history of her mother, included a link to inquire about donation at Mayo and kept in touch through the process to make sure I had questions answered.

For my part, I talk to people about donation and how easy and rewarding it was. I post about it. I hijack people's twitter posts about donation and offer to answer questions.

@rosemarya To my knowledge, nothing is happening here. I think a lot of that is due to the pandemic, people are still very slow to venture out as they should be according to the CDC, but I think NH is also less apt to have those events to promote things.
JK

Guerilla advocacy, @mauraacro. I love it. Your experiences about trying to find information really resonate and should get to the ears of the promoters and marketers of organ donation. Have you had a chance to talk to people at Donate Life?

@taybro4, working at Be The Match I bet you have something to add to this discussion too. Is Be The Match in April National Donate Life Month activities?

I've sent a few emails & notified them when I've posted things but haven't heard back.
I just looked at the Be the Match website & it's great! Within a few minutes I was able to find out so much about donating. The various organ donation organizations would do well to implement things I saw on their website. It made me feel like they encourage and appreciate donors and would be there every step to help with questions or concerns. @taybro4, did you help with that? It's exactly where I would send a potential donor.

It was announced in the Lahey Liver Support Group newsletter. I started a fundraising page to support New England Donor Services...super easy to do.
https://www.classy.org/fundraiser/3195462
I’ve sent my page link out to my email contacts and just posted it on Facebook (although admittedly I’ve not posted on FB in a couple years...). I’m up to $105 in just one day! Such a great feeling to support an organization that I truly owe my life to!

This incident is not specific to The month of April.
All year long I cruise around town and beyond with my Donate Life license plate in the frame that my family gave me for my 1st Mother’s Day after my transplant.
I once was getting into my car parked on Main Street in my hometown, when a man walked up to me and pulled up his shirt to show me his liver transplant scar and shared his story. I’m sure glad his wife was with him!

Has anyone had anything unusual happen to you while wearing or displaying a Donate Life logo?

@rosemarya My other car had a Donate Life sticker on the window, and sometimes people would ask me about it. I also wear a lapel pin with "recipient family" underneath the logo, getting questions. I was out for dinner one night, with friends, and wore my Rose Parade t-shirt with the Donate Life logo; my husband were petal pushers for their float. A man walked up to share with us all that his daughter had donated her kidney to him. He was from another state, and well-known. Who would have thought a t-shirt would spark such a heartfelt reaction from him! I think I need to get a license plate surround for my car!
Ginger