Appearing Tuesday at John Wood Community College with Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White to promote Donate Life Month, Tulcus told a large crowd assembled in the Mary Ellen Orr Auditorium about needing a kidney transplant. Tulcus worked first for Gift of Hope and now for the secretary of state's office to sign up organ donors and recently found out she needed one herself because of a rare autoimmune disease.
"I do see the irony in this," Tulcus said. "Maybe I should have taken a job with the Illinois Lottery.
"I'm joking, sir," she said, gesturing to White, to much laughter from the audience.
One person who donates organs can save eight lives and affect many more. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 113,807 people in this country are on organ donation waiting lists and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ. There are about 5,000 people in Illinois on the organ donation waiting list.
Tulcus said she is on dialysis at home for 10 hours each night. Even after working for a decade in the organ donation field, she said, nothing could prepare her for actually needing an organ herself.
Read more: http://www.whig.com/story/17383448/jwcc-hosts-organ-donation-awareness-event
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