Students hosting organ-donor drives on campuses
URBANA – When one of her close friends died, University of Illinois junior Lauren Wisniewski realized how many people would be helped because he was an organ donor.
Now she's encouraging others to become donors to help save the lives of more than 4,700 people in Illinois and 100,000 people nationwide waiting for organ or tissue transplants.
Becoming a donor in Illinois requires signing a consent form that makes the decision legally binding and guarantees that it's honored after the donor's death. "Not a lot of people know that after 2006, you can't just sign the back of your (driver's) license anymore," Wisniewski says.
A communications major at the UI, Wisniewski is president of the campus Students for Organ Donation chapter. That group, along with the Student Nurses' Association and the Student National Medical Association, is hosting donor registration drives for Donate Life Illinois' third annual campus challenge.
There are 17 campuses participating in the six-week challenge that ends Nov. 13, according to Donate Life Illinois, a regional coalition of organizations involved in organ and tissue donations and transplants and the Illinois secretary of state's organ and tissue donor program.
UI students are setting up some evening sign-up booths at Campus Recreation Center-East and the Activities and Recreation Center, Wisniewski said.
But anyone can register online and credit the enrollment to the UI student group to count in the campus challenge.
See the Web site at www.DonateLifeIllinois.org. Click on the button inviting you to register as a donor, and credit the UI at the bottom of the online form.
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