NEWS

Olympic medalist Chris Klug to attend April 17 event to promote organ and tissue donation

By TOM HUGHES
UNC School of Medicine

CHAPEL HILL -- More than 75,000 people in the United States are waiting for organ and tissue transplants that are needed to save their lives. That’s about 15,000 more than could be seated in the stands at Kenan Memorial Stadium on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Some North Carolinans have tried to help by indicating on their driver’s licenses that they wish to be organ donors after they die. But many don’t realize that in order for their wishes to be honored, they must also let their families know they want to be organ donors and carry a signed, witnessed organ donor card.

To promote awareness of that fact, a group of 18 undergraduates in UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School have organized an April 17 event called "Life Takes Guts" that will help people formalize their decision to become organ and tissue donors.

U.S. Olympic snowboarding bronze medalist Chris Klug, himself a liver transplant recipient, is scheduled to make an appearance, as well as UNC women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance and UNC women’s basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell.

Fifty-two volunteers will work two-hour shifts in the Pit from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. that day to answer questions about organ donation and help passers-by sign organ donor cards. These volunteers include business school majors, freshman biology majors, graduate students in the School of Public Health and faculty and staff from the School of Medicine and UNC Hospitals.

Outdoor entertainment events will draw attention to information booths where people can fill out donor cards to carry in their wallets and complete postcards to mail home to their parents, informing them of their decisions to become organ donors.

The event is sponsored by the APPLES Service-Learning Program, a student-sponsored program at UNC that engages students, faculty and other community partners in service-learning partnerships that address social concerns and needs of North Carolina communities. The program, created in 1990 by UNC undergraduates, is supported in part by Carolina Donor Services and Kenan-Flagler Business School. Dr. Judy Jones Tisdale, an adjunct assistant professor in the business school, serves as faculty adviser on the "Life Takes Guts" project team.

Each day, nationwide about 63 people receive an organ transplant, but another 16 people on the waiting list die because not enough organs are available, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In North Carolina, about 2,800 people desperately need organ and tissue transplants, according to Carolina Donor Services. In 2000, 667 people in North Carolina received organ transplants but another 196 died waiting for a suitable organ to become available.

Kenan-Flagler student Katie Young, a volunteer for "Life Takes Guts," said the project has given her the opportunity to practice her business communication skills and to shed light on a subject that is widely misunderstood.

"With people living longer and the population continuously growing, it is important that the numbers of organ donors increase," she said. "We hope that by educating people and correcting their misconceptions, they will be more likely to become organ donors."

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Kenan-Flagler contact: Kim Weaver Spurr, (919) 962-8951

School of Medicine and UNC Hospitals contact: Tom Hughes, (919) 966-6047