More than 100 people showed up for the Diverse Desserts & Donations event Thursday at the Donor Pavilion. Representatives from University Health, NMDP, Donate Life Texas, Methodist Transplant Institute, San Antonio Eye Bank, Texas Organ Sharing Alliance, South Texas Blood & Tissue and Transplants for Children.
Visitors had the opportunity to sign up for the donor registry. Some recipients spoke with others to state the importance of donation and what diverse donations means for patients.
Leticia Mondragon with NMDP was one of the speakers.
“Diversity is the keyword,” she said. “When we match a patient with a donor, it all has to do with their ethnic background. Every day we are giving hope to those patients.”
Every three minutes, somebody is diagnosed with a blood cancer. This makes the need to register to give stem cells even more important, she said.
“All it takes is to register to be someone’s cure.”
More info about donation:
- Nearly 60% of the national transplant waiting list is from minority communities. Transplants can be successful regardless of the ethnicity of the donor and recipient. However, the chance of longer-term survival may be greater if the donor and recipient share a close genetic background.
- A single donor can save up to eight lives via organ donation and restore sight to two people through cornea donation. They can also help more than 75 patients through tissue donation.
- Anyone over the age of 18 can sign up to be an organ, eye and tissue donor by visiting donatelifetexas.org.
