The Ongoing and Urgent Need for Organ Donors: Donate Your Organs and Be a Superhero!

The unos.org website is a treasure trove of information about the need for and distribution of organs used transplant. I rarely visit it now, yet was a very frequent guest prior to my transplant as I tracked the number of people on the transplant waiting list at my transplant center and tried to gauge my priority versus others on the list.

Today I visited the site and sighed at the data posted front and center on the home page:

According to its real-time tally, 103,790 people are waiting for organ transplants as of 2:23 p.m. today. Year to date, as of September 18, 2009, 14,191 transplants had been performed with organs donated by 7,249 donors.

Organ donation is the ultimate gift any person could give. Given the extraordinary need for organs, every donor becomes an automatic superhero, a champion, a life-saver.

Won't you be a superhero? It's easy - visit www.organdonor.gov to learn how you can sign up. As noted on the website, "Each organ and tissue donor saves or improves the lives of as many as 50 people." What could be more super than that?

Photo by Charles Thompson

Florida's Specialty License Plate for Organ Donation

On July 1, 2006, the State of Florida began offering motorists a new specialty license plate option: "Donate Organs. Pass It On."

In case you're unfamiliar with the program, Florida allows specialty license plates as a fundraising mechanism. Legislative action is required to establish a new plate and applicants must meet demanding eligibility criteria, including obtaining the sponsoring support of a state senator and representative. Once requirements are met and the Legislature approves the bill, the new plate becomes official and production begins.

Here are some stats about Florida specialty license plates for 2007:
- Florida has 109 specialty plates
- Over 1,562,000 plates were purchased (in 2007 alone)
- Most popular plate? University of Florida (more than 105,000 bought)
- "Donate Organs" plate was ranked 89th, with 1,101 issued

Pretty amazing, huh? (1.562M x $25 = a LOT of money!) The plates do more than raise funds; they also raise awareness. I'm a moving billboard of sorts, and I hope the plate reminders drivers following my car to become an organ donor.

I bought a "Donate Organs" plate as soon as I could, in June 2007 when I renewed my license plate. It's a colorful, uplifting design, don't ya think? The $25 fee I paid for the plate (above standard license plate fees) goes to Transplant Foundation, Inc., which is affiliated with the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami (Florida), and the money is used to increase awareness of and provide education about the need for organ donation.

I encourage all Floridians to consider getting a specialty license plate. Even in these tough economic times, $25 is an affordable way to support a cause that is near and dear to your heart (or liver, in my case). It's an easy way to help make our world better.