The Community Spoke
And We Listened
Faith and family play a large role in the decision to become an organ and tissue donor among the Latinx community. We launched Let’s Talk to reach out to those communities, where people are more likely to need an organ transplant, yet less likely to sign up as donors. We talked with people in the community and in faith centers and encouraged them to share their stories, to break down misconceptions, to address myths and to encourage their neighbors, families and friends to sign up as donors.
In the U.S., there are about 110,000 people waiting for a life-saving organ, and about 60 percent of them represent racial and ethnic minorities. In Michigan, it’s about half the patients on the waiting list. This is a discussion that can save lives.
Community Conversations
Read Stories of Hope
Staff Spotlight: Dain Mendoza lives the mission that saved his mother’s life
Volunteer Spotlight: With her vision restored, Leslie Palacios helps others see the need to be donors
Before Leslie Palacios received two new corneas, her life was a blur. The Grand Rapids mom of two struggled to read, to cook, to see her son play football and her triathlete husband cross the…
Mom of five can breath again
Carla Bussell waited six years to take a good breath. In 2009, shortly after the birth of her fourth son, she started experiencing shortness of breath. She was tired all the time and started passing…
A brotherhood is born out of death, life and gratitude
John Edmond barely gave it a thought as a woman from Gift of Life Michigan entered his young daughter’s room in the pediatric Intensive Care Unit. He knew his 7-year-old would not survive her accidental…
Transplant Throwback: Guadalupe Alejos
National Minority Donor Awareness Month
August is National Minority Donor Awareness Month, designated to heighten awareness about organ and tissue donation in multicultural communities. Originally observed in a single week in 1996, this awareness month is a collaborative effort by…
Fenton couple draws on experience to promote organ donation
“I never knew what it was like to feel normal”
‘I wanted some good to come from it’
Muskegon mother marks two-year-anniversary of son’s death, organ donation Muskegon, MI – Amanda Garza has a printed version of the last text she received from her son, Nathanael. It reads: “I’m just thinking of you…
‘I see life in a different way now’
Aimee Cruz would be the first person to tell you she’s lucky to be alive. Originally from Puerto Rico, the Ann Arbor resident has had three liver transplants in her life and is grateful for…
We need each other.
A single organ donor can save as many as eight lives. A tissue donor can help heal up to 75 others.
