NATIONAL DONATE LIFE MONTH - PENNSYLVANIA - STUDENT SAVED BY TRANSPLANT LOOKS TO RECRUIT MORE STUDENT DONORS

Nineteen years after a donated liver saved her life, Gabrielle Archangelo is helping to organize an organ donation contest at Duquesne University.

"It pretty much gave me a second chance at life," said Archangelo, 20, who received a liver transplant when she was 13 months old. "It has so much meaning to me."

Archangelo, a sophomore nursing major, is leading the charge to promote the It's On! Campus Challenge, a contest hosted by Donate Life Pennsylvania. Colleges across the state will attempt to get the most students to sign up to be organ donors.

This is the second year Donate Life Pennsylvania has hosted the challenge. Program Coordinator Tori Mistick said that, in the first year, 13 schools signed up a total of 200 new organ donors.

The goal for this year is 1,500 between the 26 participating colleges. Mistick, a Duquesne alumnus, said Duquesne's goal is to get 100 new donors. Each school is assigned a goal, and the school that gets the highest percentage of its target wins.

Duquesne is currently in fourth place. Penn State University won last year.

Archangelo added that many students have reservations about signing up because of rumors that doctors do not give the best possible emergency medical care to organ donors, because the organs could save someone else's life.

"It's not like that at all, and that is the main objection for most people," Archangelo said. "The doctors are going to save you no matter what. If you have organ donation on your license, they are going to do everything to save you."

According to Donate Life Pennsylvania's Web site, more than 7,900 people in the state are awaiting organ transplants and more than 104,000 nationally. Less than half of the people who die and are medically eligible to donate are registered organ donors, the site says.

To spread the word, Archangelo has created a Facebook page for the contest and will set up a promotional table in the Duquesne Student Union from 10 a.m.- 2 p.m. on Thursday. She hopes to spend additional time at promotional tables during April.

Archangelo will have computers present at the table so students can register as organ donors. The process, according to the Web site, takes less than 90 seconds. Students can sign up to help Duquesne win the contest at Donate Life's Web site.

"I'm hoping the table will have more of an impact [than Facebook] because people can sign up right then and there," Archangelo said.

Mistick said the upcoming month is the most important for organ and tissue donation. April is National Donate Life month.

"That's the month we really push people to sign up, because that's the month we focus a lot of our efforts on," Mistick said.

Archangelo agreed, saying that organ donation awareness seems highest in April.

"That time is pivotal to get people to sign up for organ donations [not only for the contest, but just to help]," Archangelo said.

According to Dr. Henkie Tan, the director of a kidney transplantation program at UPMC, organ donors improve options for patients.

"Organ transplants offer patients a second chance to normal lives," Tan said. "You have the power to change someone's world by being a donor."

The national waiting list for organ transplants has more than doubled in the past 10 years, with kidney transplants having the greatest demand, according to Donate Life Pennsylvania's Web site.

Donate Life PA, which hosts events throughout the year, will host an event every week during April in honor of Donate Life Month. They will be hosting a candlelight celebration with a free concert on Thursday, April 8 at 7 p.m. in front of Carnegie Library in Oakland. Archangelo said she hopes to recruit student donors at the event.