To the editor:

Kudos to Lawrence Memorial Hospital for participating in the 12th annual National Donate Life Month. I would like to challenge readers to take organ donation one step further and become a living donor.

The benefits of being a living donor are: You remove someone from the waiting list, you give someone a better quality of life, technology has improved to require less down time, being a living donor is by far cheaper than incurring medical bills from complications of their illness, and an organ from a living donor lasts longer than from a deceased organ donor.

Every year more than 6,500 people die while on the waiting list.  These people are fathers, mothers, children, brothers, sisters, etc. A living donor can donate a kidney or part of a liver, lung, intestine, blood or bone marrow. Typically there is very little risk to a living donor.

Not all organ donations mean that the recipient will never need another organ. Not all organ donations last forever, which means some will seek another organ donation down the road.  

Living donors go through extensive testing to be a donor, and unfortunately not everyone who is screened can be a donor. No hospital transplant team wants to put the donor or recipient in harm’s way.  It can take four to six weeks to complete the necessary tests.  

Please educate yourself and consider giving someone a chance. After all, who wouldn’t want a piece of you?