organ donor.

As most of you know, I recently lost a good friend to Cystic Fibrosis. Brad battled with the disease all of his life with grace and quiet suffering. But in the end, it came down to needing a lung transplant to save his life. 

Organ transplants of any kind are hard, because wishing for new lungs for my friend means wishing for someone else's friend to die. But a lung transplant is especially tricky because the donor needs to be an exact match...the same blood type, height, weight, etc. 

A set of lungs were set to be given to Brad, but at the last minute the doctors decided to not go through with the surgery because they weren't a good fit. Unfortunately another set of lungs never came, and Brad passed quietly in the night. 

Each day, an average of seventy nine people receive organ transplants. However, an average of eighteen people die each day waiting for transplants that can't take place because of the shortage of donated organs.

This chart from organdonor.gov shows the huge gap between the people in need of an organ transplant and the amount of donors on the list. That is a huge difference! And just think there are so many deaths each year--if each person was a donor, there would be so many more transplants and lives saved. 

Click here to sign up in your state. You will get a pretty heart sticker to put on your license too :)

Be the change. Make the difference.