Events help kick off Donate Life Month

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – April is Donate Life Month, a time set aside to help raise awareness for the need for more organ and tissue donors. Right now, there are 900 people waiting for life-saving organs in Kentucky.

At UK Hospital, donor families and transplant recipients came together Wednesday morning for a flag raising ceremony. A Donate Life Flag was added to the flagpole, which would normally only fly there for the month of April. This year, the flag will stay even after Donate Life Month ends.

One of the speakers at the ceremony was Amelia Wilson, who will celebrate the 10th anniversary of her liver transplant this week. Wilson was diagnosed with a rare liver disease when she was a teenager and had to wait more than 4 years for a donor. She has since graduated from UK and gotten married.

A new license plate also went on sale across Kentucky Wednesday, helping to spread the word about organ donation across Kentucky roads and parking lots.

If you would like to be an organ donor, you can sign up at www.donatelifeky.org or register when you renew your license. Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates also recommends having the conversation with your family about wanting to be a donor if something happens.