Wednesday
May 8, 2024 
Across the commonwealth, nearly 7,000 Pennsylvanians are on the waiting list to receive an organ transplant, and every year, nearly 500 die because there are not enough donors.
April is National Donate Life Month — a time for education and awareness, and an opportunity for all Pennsylvanians to get involved and register as organ and tissue donors through Donate Life Pennsylvania, the state’s online donation registry.
To highlight the urgent need for more Pennsylvanians to register as organ and tissue donors during National Donate Life Month, Donate Life Pennsylvania is introducing a new educational brochure featuring images of Pennsylvanians whose lives have been touched by organ donation. The brochure will be distributed at Departments of Motor Vehicles and in annual PennDOT mailings, and the stories behind the images will be shared on Donate Life Pennsylvania’s Impact page.
“National Donate Life Month is a time for all Pennsylvanians to come together as a community, to honor donors and donor families, and to register as organ donors to potentially save the lives of our family, friends and neighbors,” said Susan Stuart, president and CEO of CORE. “One donor can save up to eight lives through organ donation and heal the lives of 75 others through tissue and corneal donation.”
In addition to the new brochure, National Donate Life Month activities in Pennsylvania will include honoring donors and donor families with signature Donate Life flag raisings at hospitals across the state, and on April 16 — Blue & Green Day — the Pennsylvania state capitol will be lit in blue and green to bring awareness to organ and tissue donation.
“Almost half of all eligible Pennsylvanians are registered as donors, but everyone is needed to make a difference,” said Howard M. Nathan, president and CEO of Gift of Life Donor Program. “If every Pennsylvanian registered and encouraged others to do the same, countless more lives would be saved in this state and across the country.”
Pennsylvanians can register online to become an organ and tissue donor at any time at donatelifepa.org/register.
To learn more about how to get involved during National Donate Life Month, follow @DonateLifePennsylvania on Facebook and @donatelife_pa on Instagram.
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