Miles helps raise organ donor awareness

    COLCHESTER, Vt. — The St. Michael’s College field hockey team is helping members of their community sign up to become organ donors, with a drive organized on campus through Donate Life America being held on April 23
The field hockey program’s connection with the Donate Life America program is twofold, as Maureen Eddy, a Vermont teenager who has been paired with the squad through Team IMPACT, is afflicted with cystic fibrosis. According to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, nearly 2,800 people with the disease have received lung transplants since 1990.

    The Purple Knights became affiliated with Donate Life America through the work of sophomore Monica Miles, a resident of Dover-Foxcroft and 2013 graduate of Foxcroft Academy, who became interested in getting the team involved after her cousin’s organs were donated upon his death.
    According to Donate Life America, one donor has the potential to affect 50 lives, and there are currently nearly 124,000 men, women and children awaiting organ transplants in the U.S. There were 28,953 organ transplants performed from 14,257 donors in 2013, as well as more than 47,000 corneal transplants. More than one million tissue transplants are performed each year, with a need for the tissue on the rise. For more facts and figures, including daily updates, visit the United Network For Organ Sharing’s website. Those interested in becoming an organ donor can find more information at donatelifenewengland.org.