5K raising awareness about organ donation
A heart transplant gave Mandee Geary a second chance at life, and now she wants to help others understand the importance of being an organ donor.
Geary and her family chair the Second Chance 5K Run/Walk, now in its fourth year. The run will help raise awareness about organ donation, and the money collected from it will go to help to pay the medical expenses of someone who has received a transplant. The run will take place April 14 at 9 a.m. on the USU campus.
When Geary was 18 years old, she received a heart transplant after three teenagers were killed in a car accident. Two years later, Geary’s mom, Irene Elbert, decided they needed to do something because of the blessing they had received from Geary getting a new heart. They had heard about a run/walk in Colorado where Geary’s donor family is from and decided to set up something similar here.
“It’s important to see people come together for a good cause,” Geary said.
Around 170 people have attended the run in past years, and Elbert said she is hopeful that this year the number will be even greater. Many of the participants have either received an organ transplant or had a family member involved in donating or receiving.
Mike Strauss, athletic media relations director, is one such person. In December of 2001, Strauss received a liver transplant and since then has maintained a relationship with the children of his donor. He said they come to the run each year and will be there again this year. Strauss has been involved with the run since the beginning, when a friend heard about it, knew of Strauss’s situation and asked him to help. Making people aware of the options of organ donation is what Strauss sees as the best part of the run.
USU student Ryan Leftler received a kidney transplant from his dad last August. For some people, losing a part of their body through a live transplant, such as the one Leftler had, may be scary, but his advice is to “just do it.”
While organ donations have been rising, they are still not able to keep up with the need for transplants. Every day, 19 people die while waiting for an organ donor, according to www.organdonor.gov.
“There is no need for that,” Strauss said.
One organ donor can save approximately nine lives, and if they are also a tissue donor, they can help improve dozens of others, according to the Utah Donor Registry. The registry also stresses that deciding to be a donor doesn’t change the amount of care someone will receive if hospitalized because that information isn’t released until after the patient is pronounced dead. Some people may want to be only an organ or only a tissue donor or donate specific parts, and that is possible, according to the registry.
Yet those who have received transplants encourage, if it’s possible, to donate as much as possible. They know the impact receiving a transplant has had in their life or the life of a closer friend or family member and want all who are waiting to be able to experience that.
Strauss’s philosophy, “You don’t need your organs when you die,” is his way of encouraging everyone to become a donor, he said. Anyone wishing to become a donor can go to www.yesutah.org or www.yesidaho.org.
Registration forms for the race can be obtained online at UtahStateAggies.com, GetPatience.com, JetteYoungblood.com and idslife.org, or at the Spectrum Ticket Office. To get one through the mail, call Bonneville Realty at 888-752-9590. The registration fee is $10 before April 13 and $15 after. Walkups will be able to register from 8-8:45 a.m. the day of the race.
-albaugh@cc.usu.edu