Check Your Heart – It’s Donate Life Month!

April 5, 2023

Kandace Novotny, Hospital Donation Advocate
Gift of Life Michigan

National Donate Life Month (NDLM) is observed in April each year to help raise awareness about donation, encourage Americans to register as organ, eye, and tissue donors, and to honor those who have saved lives through the gift of donation.

This NDLM, you can be a part of this interconnected life-sustaining community by championing the Donate Life cause, becoming educated about living donation, and by registering as a donor. You can register at the Michigan Organ Donor Registry website or through your local Michigan Secretary of State office. (The Secretary of State option is available when you renew or replace your driver’s license or state ID card at the Secretary of State office or through Michigan’s online services.) Once you enroll, you will receive a heart sticker for your driver’s license or state identification card, designating your decision to be an organ and tissue donor.

Michigan residents can Check Your Heart by looking at your Michigan driver’s license or state ID to be sure you are registered. If not, it takes just 5 minutes or less to add your name to the Michigan Organ Donor Registry.

But not everyone knows how to do this, so Gift of Life Michigan is looking for hospitals, employers, schools, and community groups willing to provide easy access by emailing their teams the  Check Your Heart  link or QR code to sign up.

WHY IT MATTERS

While 90% of adults approve of donation, only 56% of Michigan adults have documented their decision by registering. When residents fail to sign up, they leave their families with the burden of making a decision, and in that situation just 44% say yes on behalf of their loved one. That means opportunities to save lives are lost. There’s urgency today as 2,400 patients in Michigan wait for a lifesaving organ transplant. Eighty percent of them need a kidney.

In addition to the Check Your Heart campaign, there are several days of celebration throughout April:

Questions? You can learn more about organ and tissue donation at the Gift of Life Michigan FAQs page.