
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, July 18, 1994                   TAG: 9407180023
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THE DONOR CARD'S JUST A START

ORGAN DONORS are not hard to come by. But donors who fully understand the importance of telling family members that they've made that choice are in short supply. The Coalition on Donation wants to change that.

\ George Bidanset is waiting for a transplant and has been since April 1993. He could be waiting until next April. It can take as long as two years to get a donated organ.

That's not because people hesitate to donate. According to Virginia's Organ Procurement Agency, 81 percent of Western Virginians polled said they would be willing to give up their organs when they die.

But less than half of them had mentioned their willingness to family members.

It's the family members who make the decision.

People don't realize that, agency spokeswoman Karen Sokohl said, and families are often unwilling to donate the organs of their loved ones if they don't know their wishes ahead of time.

That's why the Coalition on Donation, a nonprofit organ transplant advocacy group, is launching a five-year $25 million public awareness campaign this month.

"You decided to be an organ and tissue donor," the ad reads. "But you didn't tell your family. Then you haven't really decided to be a donor."

The ads will be run by 22,000 newspapers and television and radio stations nationwide. All of the advertising space and time have been donated, Sokohl said. The New York-based Advertising Council will also donate $1.5 million in creative services.

The first stage of the campaign, which will last six months, aims at bringing a general awareness about how organ donation works, Sokohl said. The coalition wants to correct the notion that filling out an organ donor card is all people have to do.

If family members don't know about the card or don't agree with the decision, it won't happen, Sokohl said.

Families rarely withhold organs when they know the deceased wanted to donate, she said. Gallup polls done for her agency, which is a member of the coalition, show 91 percent of people in this region would allow organs to be donated if they knew it was what the deceased wanted.

"The single most important step is telling your family," she said.

For more information on organ donation or to get an organ donor card, call (800) 233-8672.

by CNB