Wednesday, Feb. 14 marks three notable dates at once: Valentine’s Day, Ash Wednesday and National Donor Day.
The newest of the three is National Donor Day, which has been around since 1998 as an event to encourage and raise awareness about organ, eye, tissue, marrow and blood donations.
The need for donors of all kinds is great:
• More than 125,000 people are on waiting lists for organ transplants, 80 percent of them waiting on a kidney
• Seven out of 10 people who need a bone marrow transplant do not have a match in their immediate families
• About 4.5 million Americans would die each year without a blood transfusion, and 32,000 pints of blood are used each day in the United States
• A single tissue donor can help up to 90 people
You can do something today: