On New Year's Day I will have the honor of advocating for organ and tissue donation in front of a national audience when I participate in the Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif. To help the Colorado community understand the importance of the life-saving cause of organ donation, I would like to share my story.
I don't remember receiving my first heart transplant. I was only 6 months old when the surgery happened. It was Mother's Day, which was especially poignant as it gave my mom (and my entire family) renewed hope for me to live a full and healthy life. The transplant gave me the most basic but wonderful gift that any child could hope for — life.
I lived a happy and relatively normal childhood, but after 11 years my body began to reject my second heart and I was placed back on the waiting list. A year went by and I became extremely ill. Then, another life-saving gift occurred and I received my second heart transplant in the summer of 2005, just before starting eighth grade.
Today I'm an active 22-year-old senior at Regis University studying economics and politics. I'm also a musician and play drums in a Denver punk band.
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"You have the power to SAVE lives."
To register as a donor TODAY
In California:
www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org | www.doneVIDAcalifornia.org
Outside California:
www.organdonor.gov | www.donatelife.net
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