Donation_For_Others

The members of Spare Parts 6, a relay team in this year's Vermont City Marathon, are running to raise awareness about organ donation. The team is part of the Transplant Donor Network, and it's the sixth year the network has had a team run the marathon They range in age from their mid-twenties to their mid-sixties. Their ranks include teachers, physicians, administrators and a former state commissioner.  Together, they make up the team Spare Parts 6 in this year’s Vermont City Marathon, and they are running for a cause: to raise awareness of organ and tissue donation throughout the state. The five relay members — Dr. Harry Chen, Dawn Bissonnette, Shaina Kaye, Dr. Bridgett Marroquin and Jean DeMaroney — are part of the Transplant Donor Network (TDN), which is affiliated with the University of Vermont Medical Center. Bissonnette and DeMaroney are transplant recipients. The team wears bright fluorescent yellow shirts with “Donate Life” emblazoned across the front, ...

Dario Franchitti, Taylor McLean, Tim Clauson and Scott Dixon at an autograph event for Driven2SaveLives. Photo: Jill Sheridan/IPB Organ donation has become a mission for racing families during this year’s Indianapolis 500 with a goal of increasing the number of registered donors – and through the process comes healing and hope. A Little Sister Taylor McLean was close to her brother Bryan Clauson. He was an organ donor. “Bryan was the best big brother, the most amazing person and to be able to honor him still even though he’s not here it’s been a dream come true, honestly,” says McLean. “It’s helped me grieve in ways I didn’t know were possible and get through some of the darkest days of my life.” McLean helped out at an Indiana Donor Network autograph session at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway earlier this month. Fans had to show proof that they are registered donors to get autographs from a few IndyCar drivers including Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon. In Indian...

Lupus is a cruel autoimmune disease that can attack skin, joints and sometimes organs. The disease affects nearly five million people worldwide. It often leads to kidney failure and is a long process for those waiting for a donor. According to Sierra Donor Services, there are 117, 951 people in the U.S. waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant and the majority are in need of a kidney donation. 22 people die each day on the waiting list and 91-percent of the people are from minority or multiracial backgrounds. Sharon Stencel is a living donor nurse at the UC Davis Transplant Center. She said at her center alone there are over 1,200 people on the waiting list.  "A lot of people have the misunderstanding that you have to be a direct relative to be a good match,” Stencel said. She went into detail that relation is not of importance. Dr. Huang, a specialist at the center, said they are urging people from minority or mixed racial backgrounds to test to see if they ...

Fundraisers are planned for Brian Dahl, director of the Cayuga County Office of Emergency Services. Cayuga County legislators bowed their heads in a moment of silence Tuesday afternoon during their meeting at Emerson Park for Brian Dahl, director of the county's Office of Emergency Services. Dahl is in need of both a liver and kidney transplant and was admitted to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester this past weekend. Dahl, who has served as an emergency responder for over three decades between the Throop Volunteer Fire Department and the county's emergency management office, has needed a liver transplant for the last four years. Deputy Director Niel Rivenburgh, who has worked with Dahl for about 10 years, said his office has been inundated with phone calls and emails from friends, colleagues and family members. Those calls, he said, are the only interruptions in the day-to-day activities of the office. Rivenburgh is taking the reins, but he briefs Dahl when a...

A.J. Reyes, right, talks with Mary Knauer prior to a graduation ceremony for Samuel Merritt University nursing program students in Oakland, Calif. on Friday, May 26, 2017. Knauer's son was killed in a motorcycle crash in 2010 and Reyes received his heart in an organ transplant. (Kristopher Skinner/Bay Area News Group) At 25, AJ Reyes was suffering from congestive heart failure and running out of time. Unless the Vallejo resident got another organ to replace his damaged one, his doctors told him he would be dead within five years. Reyes went on the California Transplant Donor Network waiting list and in November of 2010, he got the call that he had been praying for. A strong, healthy heart had become available. But his joy was clouded by the knowledge that the news meant another family’s nightmare. Justin Olivera, a 40-year-old man from Willows, a small rural town in Northern California, had just been killed in a motorcycle accident. Olivera was an organ donor, and his heart...

CHRIS DORST | Gazette-Mail photos Brett “Buzzy” Morgan, of Cross Lanes, visits with Julia Burgess of Suffolk, Virginia, after meeting her for the first time during a party at Coonskin Park Saturday marking the 10-year anniversary of his liver transplant. Burgess’s best friend, Devon Thornton of Norfolk, Virginia, was Morgan’s donor. Brett “Buzzy” Morgan and his family celebrated the tenth anniversary of his liver transplant Saturday with a special guest — the best friend of his donor. Morgan and Julia Burgess-Ballinger met for the first time during a celebration at Coonskin Park. They had corresponded for 10 years after the death of Burgess-Ballinger’s best friend and Morgan’s donor, Devon Thornton. “It’s just amazing the connection you have,” Morgan, 57, of Cross Lanes, said. “Obviously her best friend died, so it’s kind of mixed emotions. What was so wonderful for my family was devastating for hers.” Burgess-Ballinger, who traveled to the event from Suffolk, Virginia...