Daughter’s recent lung transplant inspires team to tackle organ shortage and join nationwide Get Game – Give Life™ program
Coach Hill Urges Fans to Say Yes to Organ Donation
March 21, 2006
ORLANDO - Thankful for his daughter’s recent life-saving lung transplant, Orlando Magic Coach Brian Hill is making an appeal he hopes will save even more lives: Say yes to organ donation. Organ donation will be the focus of a Get Game-Give Life™ pre-game event at the March 22 Orlando Magic game, featuring a brief talk by Dr. Michael Angelis, a transplant surgeon at Florida Hospital. The game against the New York Knicks will be at the T.D. Waterhouse Centre with tip-off scheduled for 7 p.m.
Get Game – Give Life is a program that reaches out to basketball fans nationwide with organ donation information. Fans in attendance will receive organ donor cards and will be encouraged to sign them and share their wish to be an organ donor with family members.
“My daughter is alive and healthy today because someone said yes to organ donation and shared that wish with their family,” said Hill. “Growing numbers of people are doing this, but the need is greater than ever. We want people to know the incredible impact of the simple gift of organ donation.”
Hill learned the importance of organ donation when his daughter, battling a lung-ravaging condition called cystic fibrosis, received a double-lung transplant. In Florida alone, there are more than 3,000 people on the transplant waiting list, and 1,750 of them have been waiting for more than a year. Last year, almost 200 Floridians died waiting for an organ transplant.
Coach Hill is not the Magic’s only outspoken advocate of organ donation. Team owner Rich DeVos received a heart transplant nearly a decade ago, and also is active in efforts to encourage more people to become organ donors.
“With more than 90,000 people on the organ transplant waiting list in the United States, organ donation and transplantation touch many of us directly,” said Dr. Angelis. “Donation consent rates are higher than ever, but the need continues to grow. Just one organ donor can save several lives through the promise of organ transplantation.”
TransLife, a nonprofit organization that works closely with hospitals and donor families to coordinate organ allocations in Central Florida, will have volunteers at the game handing out organ donation information and organ donor cards to fans.
Get Game – Give Life has reached nearly 300,000 people nationwide and distributed nearly 80,000 organ donor cards during basketball games. Get Game – Give Life is sponsored by Roche, a leading pharmaceutical company in the field of transplantation, committed to further improving the long-term outcomes and quality of life for transplant patients.
For more information on organ donation and transplantation, visit www.donatelife.net. For Orlando Magic ticket information, call (407) 89-MAGIC or log on to Orlandomagic.com.
ORLANDO - Thankful for his daughter’s recent life-saving lung transplant, Orlando Magic Coach Brian Hill is making an appeal he hopes will save even more lives: Say yes to organ donation. Organ donation will be the focus of a Get Game-Give Life™ pre-game event at the March 22 Orlando Magic game, featuring a brief talk by Dr. Michael Angelis, a transplant surgeon at Florida Hospital. The game against the New York Knicks will be at the T.D. Waterhouse Centre with tip-off scheduled for 7 p.m.
Get Game – Give Life is a program that reaches out to basketball fans nationwide with organ donation information. Fans in attendance will receive organ donor cards and will be encouraged to sign them and share their wish to be an organ donor with family members.
“My daughter is alive and healthy today because someone said yes to organ donation and shared that wish with their family,” said Hill. “Growing numbers of people are doing this, but the need is greater than ever. We want people to know the incredible impact of the simple gift of organ donation.”
Hill learned the importance of organ donation when his daughter, battling a lung-ravaging condition called cystic fibrosis, received a double-lung transplant. In Florida alone, there are more than 3,000 people on the transplant waiting list, and 1,750 of them have been waiting for more than a year. Last year, almost 200 Floridians died waiting for an organ transplant.
Coach Hill is not the Magic’s only outspoken advocate of organ donation. Team owner Rich DeVos received a heart transplant nearly a decade ago, and also is active in efforts to encourage more people to become organ donors.
“With more than 90,000 people on the organ transplant waiting list in the United States, organ donation and transplantation touch many of us directly,” said Dr. Angelis. “Donation consent rates are higher than ever, but the need continues to grow. Just one organ donor can save several lives through the promise of organ transplantation.”
TransLife, a nonprofit organization that works closely with hospitals and donor families to coordinate organ allocations in Central Florida, will have volunteers at the game handing out organ donation information and organ donor cards to fans.
Get Game – Give Life has reached nearly 300,000 people nationwide and distributed nearly 80,000 organ donor cards during basketball games. Get Game – Give Life is sponsored by Roche, a leading pharmaceutical company in the field of transplantation, committed to further improving the long-term outcomes and quality of life for transplant patients.
For more information on organ donation and transplantation, visit www.donatelife.net. For Orlando Magic ticket information, call (407) 89-MAGIC or log on to Orlandomagic.com.
