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plant recipients and 70 percent of liver transplant recipients werestill living 5 years after their transplant operation. Many, like Debra’sbrother, have their years of life extended far beyond that five-yearmark, and have also gained a much higher quality of life due to livingwith healthy, functioning organs.Donate Life America has set a goal of increasing the registerednumber of organ donors in the U.S. by 20 million by the end of 2012.Although a family can make the decision to offer the organs of thedeceased for donation after the fact, having those wishes personallyrecorded ahead of time prevents any uncertainty during a time whenfamily members are grieving their loss.Debra gave a gift to her brother; how much greater the gift of astranger who simply adds their name to the list of registered donorsand allows their loss of life to be a gift of life, sight or healing to otherswhom they do not even know. According to the Life Source DonorRegistry, one donor has the potential of impacting up to as manyas 60 different people through their donations of organs and tissue.Donor registration is simple. You can log onto DonateLifeMN.org to get the facts about donation and register today to give a gift ofhope to someone who is waiting. ■Sources for this article are the author’s personal experiences,donatelife.net, optn.transplant.hrsa.gov and United Network forOrgan Sharing brochure titled Living Donation – Information YouNeed to Know.HERLIFEnewyork.com 11