A San Diego foundation is partnering with athletes to launch a new campaign to create awareness about organ donations.
The foundation will host events, raise money to help transplant recipients and encourage people to sign up to become organ donors.
Diane Brockington, the executive director of the John Brockington Foundation, said she hopes that their partnership with sports figures will help boost the number of organ donors by reaching a new demographic of people.
“A lot of athletes are seeing that they can bring people into organ donor registration who might not ever do it because they might not be going to health fairs or visiting health sites on the internet but they do love their sports and they do love their sports figures,” Brockington said.
Brockington said the need for organ donations is one of the biggest health challenges in the U.S.
“It is the most easily resolved health crisis that we face,” she said. “Twenty-one people a day die for the organs that we burn and bury.”
Every day four Californians die while waiting for an organ transplant.
California is currently one of the lowest donor registration states in the U.S.
The foundation’s “Fan for Life” campaign will run through April 28.
