‘Spare Parts’ relay team members (left to right): Trish Thompson, Dawn Bissonette, Chris Chiarello, Dr. Antonio Di Carlo and Bella Carter. Not shown is Williston resident Michelle Pierce, who filled in for the injured Chiarello and ran anchor for the team at the 24th annual KeyBank Vermont City Marathon & Relay on May 27. (Courtesy photo)
It wasn’t just the neon green Donate Life Vermont T-shirts that made “Spare Parts” unique among the 1,443 relay teams that participated in the 24th annual KeyBank Vermont City Marathon & Relay on Sunday.
It was also what the shirts represented.
The five members of the Spare Parts relay team and their injured captain have all had their lives shaped by organ donation.
Michelle Pierce is a living kidney donor.
Trish Thompson is a liver recipient.
Bella Carter, a cross-country runner at Enosburg Falls High School, is the niece of a woman whose heart, liver, kidneys and corneas were donated after she died in a car accident.
Dr. Antonio Di Carlo is the medical director of transplant services at Fletcher Allen Health Care.
Dawn Bissonette received a lifesaving kidney transplant 38 years ago.
And team captain Chris Chiarello, who was forced to sit out the race due to plantar fasciitis, is celebrating 20 years as a liver and pancreas recipient.
Read more: http://www.willistonobserver.com/spare-parts-and-pumping-hearts/
{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
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