Organ Donation Movement Expands Nationwide

Check out the following blog post for SODA: Student Organ Donation Advocates, the national organization my daughter Sara founded and nurtured since her freshman year at Washington University in St. Louis.

In 2009, Sara helped my husband Ron and I decide to donate our eldest daughter Laura’s organs. Since then she’s been determined—with a passion and determination that makes us proud—to educate high school and college students about the issues surrounding organ donation and how to register as an organ donor. Ron and I are also proud to be members of SODA National’s Advisory Board.

Since Sara founded the first SODA chapter in 2014, 18 chapters have been formed, and SODA’s national team continues to receive applications for new chapters. In my blog post and memoir, Permission to Thrive: My Journey from Grief to Growth, I describe how our previously healthy 14-year old daughter Laura died suddenly from a rare cancerous brain tumor. From the time Laura was rushed to the hospital with a seizure, it took just four days before she was declared brain dead. Then, on the worst day of our lives, we were asked to consider donating her organs. We were unsure of how to make that decision. Our decision to say yes has proven so far to be one of the most meaningful ones of our life.

Through her organ donation efforts, Sara has been able to keep her older sister close to her and fulfill her desire to save and improve the lives of others in desperate need of organs. She knows the healing effects of meeting Trish, the 40-year old organ recipient, and developing a special relationship with her. That bond will continue to strengthen when we travel next month to upstate New York for a visit with her at her lake cottage. To learn more about story click on my post,