Thank you to donors who healed lives and residents who registered on their tax forms Gift of Life Michigan hit more milestones in 2024. The state’s organ and tissue donation program helped a record 1,960 donors give the gift of tissue last year, healing tens of thousands of patients. Last year’s number represents a 5% […]
Gift of Life sets another tissue record in 2024 Read More »
As VP of communications and external relations, Patrick also oversees legislative advocacy for Gift of Life Michigan. This is his update about the organization’s important legislative work in Michigan. More than 14,000 Michiganders were added to the Michigan Organ Donor Registry last year as a result of Gift of Life’s most celebrated legislative victory in
Education legislation would bolster the Donor Registry Read More »
Signing up to become an organ and tissue donor is a personal decision, shaped by individual, family and sometimes faith-based considerations. All major religions in the United States support organ and tissue donation. Many religious leaders view it as the ultimate act of human kindness and charity or believe that it is a decision to
Religion and organ, eye and tissue donation Read More »
Deb Gustafson’s life changed at church one morning when a friend named Bonnie sidled up to her and whispered, “I want to be tested.” Disease had destroyed Deb’s kidneys, and she’d been living without hers for more than three years. Only dialysis kept her alive, and that took everything out of her. “The next step
As grieving parents prepared for their daughter to save lives as an organ donor, Gift of Life Michigan’s Josie Springer headed to a craft store for a plaster handprint kit to make a treasured keepsake for them. Josie Springer is a donation coordinator who has traveled to hospitals across Michigan to care for donors and
Gift of Life Michigan welcomed CBS News inside its Ann Arbor facility last summer, giving viewers a rare behind-the-scenes look at the organ donation process as part of a national spotlight on this lifesaving work. The segment aired on the CBS Evening News on April 14 and was accompanied by a powerful documentary, A Final
Dior Chambers is no stranger to kidney disease. It has touched every corner of her life—from losing her father, Elijah Coley, to renal failure in 2001, to watching her husband, Dominique survive 14 years of dialysis before receiving a life-saving kidney transplant. Now, Dior finds herself in that same fight. In September of last
Dior Chambers is waiting for that life-saving gift Read More »
Today, the Michigan Senate adopted Sen. Kevin Daley’s (R-Lum) resolution to recognize April 2025 as Donate Life Month. Celebrated each April, the national observance is a time to raise awareness about organ, eye and tissue donation, encourage registration as a donor and honor those who have given the gift of life through donation. “My son
Brett Bowman, from Woodhaven, Mich., was born with cystic fibrosis. Growing up he was in and out of C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor. He lost his younger brother Blake to the disease in 2015. As Brett got older, he didn’t let it slow him down. He played baseball and football and had dreams
“I’m so thankful I’m here and for the gift of life” Read More »
Erik’s selfless decision to donate inspired his daughter Erika to honor his memory through advocacy
Through the pain of losing her husband Greg, Shalonda found purpose in raising awareness for organ, eye and tissue donation.
When Saginaw-area resident Londel Cook was diagnosed with end stage renal failure at a young age, he didn’t understand the severity of his illness. “I didn’t take any of it seriously because I was 23,” he said. “I was uneducated on organ donation altogether. I wasn’t really interested in trying to get on the transplant
“Where I was, was not who I was.” Read More »
Gift of Life Michigan Community Outreach Coordinator Shalonda Griffin’s late husband Greg was the ‘greatest person she has ever met.’ “He put the color in my world,” she shared. “I always think about the “Wizard of Oz”, everything in Kansas was in black and white and then once they got to Oz it was in
Turning pain into purpose Read More »
Debra Wyant, the mother of Michigan’s first and only hand donor, has exemplified what it means to honor life through donation since 21-year-old Shayna Sturtevant became a donor nine years ago in Muskegon. Debra will be recognized during Gift of Life Michigan’s Annual Champions Gala on May 2 at The Westin Book Cadillac in Detroit.
GRAND BLANC – On Thursday, April 24, Gift of Life Michigan will host the inaugural Genessee County Interfaith Breakfast. The free event will take place at the Captain’s Club Golf and Event Center in Grand Blanc, at 10 a.m. Interfaith leaders from across the county have been invited to speak including Pastors Jerry and Lynn
Gift of Life Michigan hosts Genesee County Interfaith Breakfast Thursday, April 24 Read More »
