Every 13 minutes another person

is added to the transplant waiting list

     

• There are currently over 110,00 people waiting for an organ donation
• The largest group waiting is from 18-49 years of age
• An average of 18 people die each day while on the waiting list for an organ donation
• Organs and tissues from a single non-living donor can be used to benefit more than 50 people
• Living donors can donate a kidney and parts of their liver, lung, pancreas, or intestine
• Living donors can be evaluated to help a friend, family member or even donate anonymously to patients on the wait list

• Register to be an organ donor
• Talk about your decision
• Encourage others to do so

• Submit Your Story - about a donor, recipient, etc
• Join the Conversation - talk, comment, share

Our mission is to raise and promote awareness and information about the need for organ and tissue donors and to encourage people to become organ and tissue donors. We want to provide support and encouragement to transplant recipients and those waiting.

Organ Donor Awareness consists of a small group of people dedicated to raising and promoting awareness about the need for organ and tissue donors. Our lives have been affected by a family member who is presently on a waiting list for a kidney transplant. Note: On June 22, 2010, Kevin received a kidney transplant from a deceased organ donor. Praise the Lord!

To Remember Me - I Will Live Forever

by Robert Noel Test, American Poet (1926-1994)

The day will come when my body will lie upon a white sheet neatly tucked under four corners of a mattress located in a hospital; busily occupied with the living and the dying. At a certain moment a doctor will determine that my brain has ceased to function and that, for all intents and purposes, my life has stopped.

When that happens, do not attempt to instill artificial life into my body by the use of a machine. And don’t call this my deathbed. Let it be called the bed of life, and let my body be taken from it to help others lead fuller lives.

• Give my sight to the man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby’s face or love in the eyes of a woman.
  
  
• Give my heart to a person whose own heart has caused nothing but endless days of pain.
  
  
• Give my blood to the teenager who was pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he might live to see his grandchildren play.
  
  
• Give my kidneys to the one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week.
  
  
• Take my bones, every muscle, every fiber and nerve in my body and find a way to make a crippled child walk. Explore every corner of my brain.
  
  
• Take my cells, if necessary, and let them grow so that, someday a speechless boy will shout at the crack of a bat and a deaf girl will hear the sound of rain agianst her window.
  
  
• Burn what is left of me and scatter the ashes to the winds to help the flowers grow.
  
  
• If you must bury something, let it be my faults, my weakness and all prejudice against my fellow man.
  
  
• Give my sins to the devil.
  
  
• Give my soul to God.
  
  

If, by chance, you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or word to someone who needs you. If you do all I have asked, I will live forever.

About the Author
Robert N. Test was one of the pioneers in promoting organ and tissue donations. In 1976, he wrote an essay titled "To Remember Me." It was first published in The Cincinnati Post and later in Ann Landers' column, as well as in Reader's Digest.