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.

#66... Donate blood

My paternal grandfather had a lot of trouble with his hips... and as a result, had many surgeries to repair them, involving more than a few blood transfusions. So I always had this idea that when I reached the age of 18, I would become a blood donor in honour of Grandpa. Sadly, three months before I reached the age of majority, I discovered that I had Juvenile (Type 1) Diabetes. Since people with diabetes can't donate, my career as a blood donor ended before it began, and I was more than a little miffed. I would never get to lie on one of those cots with the feeling that I might be saving a life, and I would never get to eat the donut reward that the nice nurses offered. As someone with diabetes, I give many tubes of blood at the lab, but I can't give it to someone who really needs it.

And there are lots of people who really need it, especially during these summer months. A friend who is an orthopedic surgeon has lots of trauma stories to tell this time of year, and is working long hours because of traffic, workplace and leisure (ATV) accidents. Quite often, when we get to the long weekends of summer, there are media campaigns for blood donations because our hospitals run short. So if you're healthy and have a little time on your hands, consider paying a visit to a Blood Donor Clinic. Relax on one of those cots, maybe save a life, and have a donut (or whatever they serve these days) for me, too. Give the gift of life!

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