Simple Suggestion #274... Join your organ donor registry

This is pretty much a rerun of Simple Suggestion #83, Carry an organ donor card, except that now life has gone all high tech and even more of our personal information is online. This suggestion is still fairly obvious. Once we die, we don't need our organs anymore, but others might.

Some years ago, I hesitated to sign my card, thinking that no one would want any part of me since I've had Type 1 diabetes for so many years. But a nurse friend suggested that I let the experts decide on my organs' suitability since I'm basically a pretty healthy human being. My kidneys might be questionable, but I might be a perfect match for a recipient who needs other organs.

And good things have happened to people in my life because of organ donation...

Two people can see better now because my girlfriend, Pauline, who died of heart surgery complications when she was 20, was an organ donor. Her Mom got to meet one of them, a young mom who was so very grateful.

Mina's husband, Kevin, lived an extra year and got to enjoy a little more time with his wife and infant daughter because someone carried a donor card. Mina has since worked for many years with an organ donor network so that others could have the same opportunities as her little family did.

My dad's vision was saved because someone donated their corneas, and our whole family is grateful that Dad has his eyesight.

Logan Boulet, a young Humboldt Broncos player from Lethbridge, is expected to save the lives of six people because he signed his donor card just a few weeks before Friday's fatal accident, God bless him. When death comes unexpectedly, sometimes there's a little bit of comfort for families who know that someone else's life has been saved or improved because their deceased loved one registered as an organ donor. If anything positive has come from Logan's death, it's those lives that he saves and the fact that he has gotten more of us thinking about offering the gift of life, and hopefully, signing up to be donors, like he did.

Click here to link to the Alberta Organ and Tissue Donation Registry, or look up the registry closest to you. On the website above, all you need is your health care number and basic personal information to register. It's that simple.

Why put it off for another minute?

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Try here.