All Things Kidney #3

Hey welcome back Kidney Warriors! It's been an interesting week in the world of kidneys here in New York State. The need for organ donors has never been so dire as it is today. With over 10,000 waiting for lifesaving transplants, we now have a few new initiatives to help promote organ donation awareness. In 2012, passed by the New York State legislature and signed by Governor Cuomo, "Lauren's Law" took effect on October 3, 2013.

 This law was inspired by 11 year old Lauren Shields after she had a heart transplant at the age of 9.  She and her family had worked hard to raise awareness for all those waiting for lifesaving transplants here in New York State. The law requires that drivers license applications can only be processed if the organ donation section of the application is filled out. Drivers now are given the choice to say "Yes" or "Not at this time" while filling out the application. This law also applies to non~driver I.D. cards as well. In the past although an organ donation section was included it was not required to be filled out. The goal of this new law is to raise the number of registered donors; currently New York has some of the lowest donor rates in the country. Every year more than 500 New Yorkers die while waiting for a transplant.

*Now 13 year old Lauren Shields speaking about "Lauren's Law" taking effect*

The next initiative is called The Campaign 4 Life! For October 2013 it is a public health initiative, to register donors on the New York State Donate Life organ donor registry, supported by the Alliance for Donation/New York State Donate Life along with Northeast Kidney. Its designed to make a focused effort on signing up new donors using a person-to-person connection and putting a face on the need for organ donation. You can become part of the effort by joining with TEAM Northeast and getting out and spreading the word; sign up yourself and then encourage others. Please visit Campaign4Life @ http://campaign4life.org/

I am one of the 10,000 in New York who are waiting for a kidney transplant. I have been on dialysis for more than five and half years and living with CKD for the last 15 years. There is no greater gift than the gift of life! If you're not an organ donor please visit Donate Life New York http://campaign4life.org/ to register today. If you have already signed up let others know why you decided to become a donor and help encourage them to do the same. Please help all those waiting by spreading awareness about organ donation and one day you too will be someones Hero! 

So Kidney Warriors let's make this happen, I challenge each of you to get 10 people to sign up by the end of October. And hopefully they will get 10 people to sign up as well. Before you know it we will get every" of age" New York resident on the Donate Life Registry. Let's make New York #1 in donor rates. Let's do it for the 10,000 waiting.

Thanks for joining me for another edition of All Things Kidney. I look forward to your questions, comments or concerns. 

Keep on fighting, you Kidney Warriors! 

~Kidney Blogger