Extending your hand and your heart is what donor awareness is all about.
April is donor awareness month all over the country. I have been busy working booths, spreading the word, and telling my own personal story of renewed health to all who will listen.
As a rule, most people are not concerned nor do they think about this cause until it strikes them. I suppose that is true with any physical or mental challenge we encounter.
There are many wonderful stories of triumph over disease. You can click on to my valuable resources and go to Transplantcafe.com and share in the stories of so many gifts of life.
It is a term used often (gift of life), but it is the phrase that fits the cause and the very difficult journey of those who are waiting. Watching others waiting reminds me of the 4 year wait I was on to receive the gift of life. Every time the phone rings you jump, and the anticipation of a new organ or tissue is only part of this tedious process. In my first book "Waiting to Die, Wanting to Live" I share how patience and God become my best friend.
During the waiting period you must stay alive long enough and meet certain criteria before the surgery can even be performed. So I think how you learn to wait is how you will relearn to live your life once you receive whatever life saving organ you are blessed to receive. For when illness strikes it takes you out of your normal world and activity. When you begin to regain your health after transplant you hopefully will live it in a different way. I became more grateful, more aware of the joy of peace and how quickly the world can get you off course and we forget. As a recipient I will never forget the gift of generosity and love that was bestowed upon me. I never have or will take my life for granted. A second chance means something special, and you must do something special with your life. I want to make a difference.
To all the living donors and donor families who through a most difficult time managed to give a renewed life to a recipient I say a personal thank you. Thank you seems hardly enough, but I will honor the gift, live life to the fullest and take care of the gift given by another. Please take a moment and reflect and say a quiet thank you to those who gave so unselfishly. Be grateful, be humbled, be thankful. A good way to live your life.
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