Organ donation a key to giving life

LIHU‘E — Tony Sagayadora made it to the rotunda of the Mo‘ikeha Building, Monday.

He was joined by Sandy Webster and Steve Wolshin.

All three were there because of the generosity of other people who donated organs so they could be in attendance when Kaua‘i Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. announced April as National Donate Life Month.

An average of 17 people die each day because of the lack of available organs for transplant, and every 13 minutes another name is added to the national transplant wait list, states the Hawai‘i Coalition on Donation Web site.

The three recipients who were on hand to accept the mayoral proclamation are living testimonial to the value of organ donation, one donor being able to enhance more than 50 different people’s lives.

Shizu Hashimoto of the Kapa‘a Lions Club has been an organ donor advocate for many years and was joined by representatives of other Lions Clubs as well as other community groups who represent the Hawai‘i Coalition on Donation on Kaua‘i.

In Hawai‘i, approximately 375 people are awaiting heart, liver, kidney or pancreas transplant, states the mayoral proclamation.

The gifts of life, sight and healing are truly the most generous and honorable gifts a person can share with another, and in honor of the donor and their families, the proclamation encourages the wearing of a green ribbon symbolizing organ and tissue donation to celebrate donors.

During the month-long awareness campaign on organ donations, the Hawai‘i Coalition on Donation is committed to educate the state about organ and tissue donation.

It has a straightforward messaged encompassed in three words — learn, talk and decide.

Visit its Web site at www.donatelifehawaii.org for more information.

• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@kauaipubco.com.