August is National Multicultural Organ Donor Awareness Month – a time dedicated to raising awareness of the urgent need for organ donations from people of all backgrounds. A diverse organ donor pool can significantly impact transplant success rates.
“To meet some of the need on the waiting list, we need donors from all communities,” said Dawn Benjamin of Tennessee Donor Services. “Currently, there are over 100,000 people on the national transplant waiting list and no progress is being made. 3,000 of those live here in the state of Tennessee.”
Benjamin said that of the people who have come forward to be organ donors, not many come from communities of color.
“On the other hand, when we look at the number of people on the waiting list who need a transplant, we find that 60% of the people on the national waiting list are from communities of color,” Benjamin said.
A match is not based on race, but Benjamin said the success rate of transplants increases when the recipient and donor are from the same ethnic group.
“It really is a second chance in life,” said Benjamin.
Adam Cowan of Chattanooga had to be on dialysis for nine years before receiving a kidney transplant. He believes the transplant is a second chance at life.
“When I look around the clinics, I see that the majority of dialysis patients are black and brown people,” Cowan said. “The bottom line is that we need to donate to people who look like us.”
Cowan encourages everyone to become a donor.
“We need to tell people to become organ donors. Organ donors save lives. Organ donors make a difference. I am living proof that it makes a difference,” Cowan said.
To register as a donor, visit spendelifetn.org.
