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Community Corner

In the New Year, Resolve to Help Others: Sign the Organ, Eye and Tissue Donor Registry

The top four New Year’s resolutions for 2014, according to the website StatisticBrain are to:

·      Lose weight

·      Get organized

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·      Spend less, Save more

·      Enjoy life to the fullest

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Even if you’re one of the 38 percent of Americans who say they never make resolutions, there is one simple thing you can do that costs nothing, that may one day save lives and help as many as 25 others enjoy life to its fullest: Sign the Illinois Organ/Tissue Donor Registry.

“The Illinois Eye-Bank encourages you to extend this season of giving into the New Year, and resolve to register as an organ, eye and tissue donor,” said Executive Director Diane Hollingsworth. “Making the decision to expand the lifesaving donor pool provides hope and life to others who may one day need to draw within it.”

Every 10 minutes, another name is added to the national transplant waiting list, while in Illinois, 5,186 people await a lifesaving organ. Signing the Illinois Organ/Tissue Donor Registry is one way to help you complete a 2014 resolution that could also have a huge impact on the lives of others – all without joining a gym.

In FY2013, the Illinois Eye-Bank helped facilitate 1,320 transplants in Illinois, 2,871 total transplants in the US and abroad and provided 1,459 tissues for research. To learn about Illinois residents who received the gift of sight thanks to corneal tissue transplantation, view the short video “An Eye for an I” at IllinoisEyeBank.org.

The Illinois Eye-Bank is a subsidiary of Midwest Eye-Banks and a charitable, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and restoration of sight. It recovers, evaluates and distributes human eye tissue for transplantation. It also supports research into the causes and cures of blinding eye conditions, promotes donation awareness through public and professional education and provides humanitarian aid to people in need of corneal transplantation throughout the world. For more information, visit the Illinois Eye-Bank at IllinoisEyeBank.org or call 800-548-4703.

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