Locks of Legacy 2025
Two weeks ago I had the honor of traveling to Sacramento, to speak with 400 family members whose loved ones died last year. In their deep grief they decided that their loved ones would become tissue and organ donors. And then this month they found another well of courage, and traveled to the memorial event hosted by Sierra Donor Services, to light candles, receive support, and say their loved ones names in the company of other bereaved families. Many of them shared with me, how meaningful it was to them, to know that their loved one had saved the lives and improved the health of others.
At the memorial event we also heard fro
m organ and tissue recipients, whose lives were saved because of the courage and kindness of the families in the room. The event was breathtaking - as in it literally took my breath away a hundred times. At least!
After the event I was invited to have dinner with DCI Donor Services, Inc.'s aftercare team. I learned that, in the 3 weeks prior, there had been a 700% increase in people REMOVING themselves from donor registries in the U.S. That's an average of 412 people per day deciding that they no longer wanted to be donors. The exodus began after a New York Times article that ran on July 25th and continued despite a rebuttal published by Newsweek, and various investigations and reports from CMS, AOPO and other organizations who care about this life saving work. No doubt there are a lot of complexities and nuances, as there always are. This is not easy, straightforward work. But it made me sad to hear about decades of work being impacted, so I wanted to at least share my own experience working with donation agencies and - once again this year - speaking directly with the families of donors and with tissue and organ recipients too. There is so much good work and healing happening here.
What I see - myself - is the extraordinarily leadership of people like Michele Rosdahl, Sean Van Slyck, Dominic Adorno, Alexandra Glazier, Katie Banik, Colleen McCarthy, Clifton McClenney, and Franny Johnson, MPA - who work with compassionate agencies including DCI Donor Services, Inc., Versiti Inc., New England Donor Services, DonorConnect, and Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency. And I see aftercare teams working with so much grace and care - people like Robin Riggan, Rea Trim, Sarah Metz, Yee Moua, Thomas Perry, and Erika Tode who I was so lucky to spend time with last week.
Today my team at Help Texts is sending gratitude to everyone doing this important (and complicated) work.
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About Help Texts
Help Texts is the world's leading clinically sound, scalable, bereavement intervention. We deliver affordable, multilingual support globally via text message for all of life's toughest moments. With extraordinary acceptability (95%) and 6-month retention (90%) rates, Help Texts' light-weight solution makes it easy for employers, providers, payers, and others to improve health and community outcomes, while also realizing significant cost savings for those in their care.
Life can be hard. Getting support shouldn't have to be. 💙 Help Texts is proud to be delivering personalized, expert grief and mental health support in 59 countries and 28 languages. All year long.