More minorities should be organ donors

Yuma Sun | Mike Shelton

Minorities make up more than 56 percent of those currently on the organ transplant waiting lists. African-Americans represent 35 percent of patients waiting for kidney transplants. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provided these figures during its National Minority Donor Awareness Week (Aug. 1-7). The purpose of this outreach is to increase awareness of the need for more organ, eye and tissue donors, especially among minorities.

Going with this is encouraging people to take better care of their health in order to reduce the number needing a transplant in the first place.

There’s the story of “Tino” in Peoria, Ill. He got diabetes when he was 4 years old. His doctors thought he’d never see 15. He proved them wrong, making it to 38. However, by then, he had 34 years of diabetes, his pancreas was bad and so were his kidneys. Tino was getting help from the Gift of Hope in Illinois. More than half of that state’s waiting list was made of minorities but they made up the least of the donor list. Jackie Lynch of The Gift of Hope said: “There are so few African American donors, yet so many waiting. They wait the longest, and in many cases they die waiting.”
______________________________________________________ 
"You have the power to SAVE lives." 
To register as a donor TODAY
In California: 
www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org | www.doneVIDAcalifornia.org 
Outside California: 
www.organdonor.gov | www.donatelife.net

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