On Monday night, a 15-year-old talented and inspired athlete was the guest speaker at the Essex Rotary Club meeting. There she urged members and guests to take the time to donate their vital organs and tissues.
“Instead of asking you to have a heart, I am asking you to give a heart,” said figure skater Brianna Clarkson of Lakeshore.
Clarkson has been skating since she was 18 months old and has accumulated over 70 medals. She was seventh at this year’s junior nationals and has aspirations to some day reach the Olympics.
“I understand that being healthy is a life time commitment,” said Clarkson.
On the same day that Hotel Dieu-Grace Hospital held a press conference that told only 18 percent of people in Windsor-Essex are donors, Clarkson’s message was well received by the local service club.
Clarkson explained that one donor could help save up to eight lives. There is a chronic shortage of donors and there are over 1,500 people on the waiting list for vital organs such as kidneys, lungs and hearts in Ontario.
Donors must be at least 16 years of age and there is no limit to how old a donor can be. One person who donated their tissue was 102-years-old and a 90-year-old donated an organ to save a life.
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