Facebook donor status boots organ donor registry

The McDowell News | Landdis Hollifield

Photo: Andy Bunch, of Old Fort, received his heart transplant in 2004. Bunch hopes the new facebook donor status tool will encourage others to become organ donors.

One social network is helping raise the number of organ donors in North Carolina and across the country.

During the first week of May, Facebook began to allow users to list their organ donor status.

Although the option doesn’t legally make Facebook members organ donors, it does help folks register with official organ donor organizations around the country.

Sharon Hirsch Executive Director of Donate Life NC, a collaborative group of organizations that promote eye, organ and tissue donation, said that the new option has boosted those registering to donate organs.

“It (the Facebook option) has had a profound impact in the first two weeks,” stated Hirsch “ In fact, on the first day (May 1) we had a 3,000 percent increase over our daily average online registration rate.”

The group, which usually averages only 18 registered donors a day, had over 1,400 individuals register on their site during the first two weeks the option was available on Facebook.

Read more: http://www2.mcdowellnews.com/news/2012/jun/04/facebook-donor-status-boosts-organ-donor-registry-ar-2331547/