SALT LAKE CITY — Friday is Donor Remembrance Day - a chance to honor those whose decision to be organ donors helped others have a better chance at life.
The gift of organ donation is observed throughout the month of April.
It’s also an opportunity for the staff at Donor Connect to encourage Utahns to register as organ donors.
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Salt Lake City’s Celebration of Life Monument memorializes both living and deceased organ donors.
Donor Connect’s staff takes care of the monument, and they visited the monument Friday to add decorations and greet family members who stopped to pay tribute.
“It’s humbling to be able to get to meet such incredible families that think of others. They’re going through something very very difficult. Sometimes it’s even hard to imagine thinking of losing a loved one and then being presented with the option of organ or tissue donation. And those families say yes,” said David Robles, who connects donors with recipients for Donor Connect.
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An organ donor who dies can save the lives of up to eight other people.
Tissue donations can change the lives of more than 100 people through the gifts of corneas, skin, bone, veins, ligaments and heart valves.
There is always a demand for organ and tissue donations, and Robles hopes others will elect to become donors.
