CANANDAIGUA – In conjunction with National Donate Life Month, UR Medicine Thompson Health is raising awareness of the lifesaving impact made by organ, eye, and tissue donors.
On Wednesday, April 9, staff members will raise a Donate Life flag on the flagpole just outside the Constellation Center for Health and Healing at F.F. Thompson Hospital. The flag will remain through April 30. The goal is to encourage members of the community to consider enrolling in the New York State Donate Life Registry.
ICU/Observation Nursing Director Mary Kate Corey oversees the Donate Life Workgroup at Thompson. She said in 2024, the hospital had a total of four organ donors, 11 eye donors, and 14 tissue donors. So far in 2025, the hospital has had one organ donor, three eye donors and five tissue donors.
Corey and others will be staffing a Donate Life table outside of the hospital cafeteria this month to share information about organ donation.
According to Donate Life New York State, there are currently almost 8,000 residents of the state on the national organ transplant waitlist but one organ donor can save eight lives and heal 75 more through eye and tissue donation.
Being a living donor is also an option. According to the federal Health Resources & Services Administration, you can donate a kidney, a piece of your liver, and certain other organs and tissues while alive. About 6,500 living donation transplants take place each year.
Colleen Culp of Palmyra is a phlebotomist with Thompson and in 2024 donated part of her liver to stranger via the transplant program at the University of Rochester Medical Center. She later heard from the recipient, a young mother. The two have since connected, finding they have much in common.
“They couldn’t have matched me with anybody better. She’s phenomenal,” Culp said, adding, “There are so many people out there who really would like a second chance at life!”
For more information about organ donation, visit www.DonateLifeNYS.org.