Cycling group shares information on donor program

Nancy Davis of Anchorage, Ala., lost her 5-year-old son, Sean, to pulmonary hypertension in 1998 while waiting on a heart/lung transplant that never materialized.

That's why Davis, with Sean's favorite toy, a tyrannosaurus rex named Fred, in tow, is cycling across America on the Five Points of Life Ride.

The seven-week ride, in which a group of about 11 cyclists are traveling from International Falls, Minn., to St. Petersburg, Fla., developed out of the Five Points of Life program.

This program is focused on raising national awareness of the need for people to donate whole blood, platelets, bone marrow, cord blood and organs/tissue.

Answering questions

"One of the most fun events is when people stop and ask what we are doing," Davis said. "It may be someone who never donated before."

Cyclists taking part in the ride stopped at the Cape Girardeau Senior Center Wednesday where the American Red Cross was holding a blood drive and Mid-America Transplant Services was signing people up on the Missouri Organ Donor Registry. The registry is a confidential list of potential organ, tissue and eye donors maintained by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

According to Breita Church with Mid-America Transplant Services in Cape Girardeau, the most important thing for people to do is act on their decision to donate -- talk to their family, donate blood, sign up on the donor registry.

For more information about the Five Points of Life program, visit www.lifesouth.org or call (877) 5POINTS. For more information about the Missouri Organ Donor Registry, visit www.mts-stl.org or call Church at 332-0070 or (888) 376-4854.

jgosche@semissourian.com

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