How Donation Works
A generous community effort to increase registered donors and save future lives
Register online as an organ, eye, and tissue donor
What is Donation After Life
Donation is a selfless act that saves and heals lives
More than 100,000 people are waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant, including more than 3,000 North Carolinians. Deceased organ donation is the gift of heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, kidneys, or small intestines for the purpose of transplantation. Donated corneas can restore sight for a recipient. Tissue donation can include skin, bone, heart valves, and veins. These gifts are used in many medical procedures that can save the lives of survivors of burns or injuries, restore mobility to veterans or athletes, support reconstructive surgery for cancer survivors, or provide structural components for people who need spinal or dental recovery treatments.
What is Involved?
How gifts of life are shared with those in need
Register –
Anyone can register to be a donor
Connect –
HonorBridge works with the family and medical team
Match –
Recipients are identified
Recover – Gifts are recovered and delivered to transplant partners
Remember – We remember and honor our donor heroes
Did you know one person can save eight lives and help many more?
When you make the decision to be an organ, eye, and tissue donor, you can save the lives of 8 people waiting for an organ transplant. One person who donates tissue can provide healing gifts to 75 other people.
Why Every Registered Donor Counts
Anyone can register, but less than 1% will become organ donors
Your decision makes a difference
Every day, people die waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant. Many more are waiting for a life-enhancing procedure to heal from injuries or disease. Anyone can register to be an organ, eye, and tissue donor, but only 1% of people who die in a hospital will actually become organ donors. Far more donors will be eligible to donate tissue, potentially impacting up to 75 people. That’s why every registered donor counts. Your decision to become a registered donor could bring hope and healing to so many others.
Donation Facts
Fact: A medical professional’s first priority is always to provide care and preserve life.
Doctors will make every effort to save a patient’s life, regardless of whether or not that patient is a registered donor.
Fact: Organ and tissue donors can have an open casket.
HonorBridge works with funeral service professionals to coordinate the family’s wishes for burial with organ and tissue recovery. Our donors are always treated with dignity and respect, and their bodies can be viewed at a service after their donations have been recovered.
Fact: Every major faith tradition supports donation.
And in every culture, people believe that the decision to care for and help our neighbors is a good and moral choice. The decision to be a donor is an individual choice that is supported by diverse communities and belief traditions.
Stories of Hope
Read about the impact of organ, eye, and tissue donation in our community
Ready to Register?
Your decision today could save or change the lives of so many people
Every 9 minutes another person is added to the national waiting list
17 people die each day waiting for an organ transplant
1 donor can heal up to 75 lives through eye & tissue donation
More than 100,000 women, children, and men in the US are waiting for lifesaving transplants
More than 3,000 North Carolinians are waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant
Data provided by UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing)
