One of the reason's I started Anna's place was to tell Anna's story. To let people know the importance of organ donation and what good it can do. My blog has since turned into more of a family journal. Not that that's a bad thing. There is just not much to report on Anna, health wise. She has been in great health since her transplant!
After leaving a comment on "I am. Are you?" I recieved an e-mail from the creator of this blog asking me if I would like my story in a Illinois Donor Diary entry. I will have to write our story along with a picture of Anna and describe my personal story/tie to organ donation. With hopes that this would help others to register as donors, I would love to help!
Upon discussing this with a friend I was asked why my story would help; because I was Anna's donor. This took me by surprise, she knows us, knows our family, and she knows what Anna has been through! I explained to her that even though I was Anna's donor I still like to promote oragan donation. Living donation is not possible in every case, and a living donor can only donate part of a liver, or one kidney. What about hearts, lungs, ect....... This pushed me more into wanting to do this. Some people don't understand the importance of organ donation. If myself, or any of my family, weren't able to donate to Anna, I would have hoped that someone would have made the selfless choice to donate their own or their loved ones organs. We were very lucky in our case, but not everyone is.
Here are some statistics:
Almost 100,000 men, women and children currently need life-saving organ transplants.
Every 12 minutes another name is added to the national organ transplant waiting list.
An average of 18 people die each day from the lack of available organs for transplant.
In 2005, there were 7,593 deceased organ donors and 6,895 living organ donors resulting in 28,108 organ transplants.
In 2005, 44,000 grafts were made available for transplant by eye banks within the United States.
Approximately 1,000,000 tissue transplants are performed annually.
According to research, 98% of all adults have heard about organ donation and 86% have heard of tissue donation.
90% of Americans say they support donation, but only 30% know the essential steps to take to be a donor.
So stay tuned, I will let you know when our story is up, but for now you can read other stories here!
These are other ways I have been promoting organ donation awarness:
My car is decorated with this: You can purchase this, and other great items here
And This:
And My family Wears these:
I wear these
And Anna wears this:
I know it doesn't seem like, but I get a great response to these and then I get to tell our story. I get people thinking. Anna has touched so many lives around her. A lot of people come up to me and say that they changed their minds about donation and register to be donors after knowing about Anna.
