Gift of Life logo on its building

Gift of Life sets another tissue record in 2024

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 قراءة المزيد »

Patrick Wells-O'Brien, VP of communications and external affairs

Education legislation would bolster the Donor Registry

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 قراءة المزيد »

Hands holding rosary beads

Religion and organ, eye and tissue donation

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 قراءة المزيد »

Deb Gustafson helps organize events where volunteers craft warm, fuzzy comfort blankets to help ease the grief of donor families.

Volunteer Spotlight: Deb Gustafson gets a kidney, then offers comfort to families from her heart

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

Volunteer Spotlight: Deb Gustafson gets a kidney, then offers comfort to families from her heart قراءة المزيد »

Josie Springer is a donation coordinator who has traveled to hospitals across Michigan to care for donors and their heartbroken families for 29 years.

Staff Spotlight: Veteran Donation Coordinator Josie Springer lends skill and compassion to life-saving mission

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

Staff Spotlight: Veteran Donation Coordinator Josie Springer lends skill and compassion to life-saving mission قراءة المزيد »

The family of Mitch Potter says their goodbyes at the hospital before he is moved to Gift of Life Michigan to give his final gifts.

Behind the Scenes of “The Final Gift”: CBS News Spotlights Gift of Life Michigan’s Lifesaving Work

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

Behind the Scenes of “The Final Gift”: CBS News Spotlights Gift of Life Michigan’s Lifesaving Work قراءة المزيد »

Dior Chambers is waiting for that life-saving gift

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 قراءة المزيد »

Michigan Senate recognizes April as Donate Life Month, introduces new bills focused on organ, eye and tissue donation education

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

Michigan Senate recognizes April as Donate Life Month, introduces new bills focused on organ, eye and tissue donation education قراءة المزيد »

“I’m so thankful I’m here and for the gift of life”

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” قراءة المزيد »

Londel Cook is living life to the fullest after his kidney transplant.

“Where I was, was not who I was.”

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.” قراءة المزيد »

Donor mother Debra Wyant to receive Gift of Life Michigan’s Honoring Life Through Donation Award, May 2

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. 

Donor mother Debra Wyant to receive Gift of Life Michigan’s Honoring Life Through Donation Award, May 2 قراءة المزيد »

Gift of Life Michigan hosts Genesee County Interfaith Breakfast Thursday, April 24

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 قراءة المزيد »

انتقل إلى أعلى