Representatives from Davis Medical Center and the Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE) gathered for a ceremonial flag raising ceremony Thursday to commemorate April as National Donate Life Month.   

Representatives from both organizations came together with community members for the celebration, which originated inside the hospital at the DMC MarketPlace. While inside, Brandi Cunningham, Assistant Manager of Patient Access at DMC, read a letter that her husband had written for the event.

Cunningham’s spouse, Christopher, was diagnosed with heart disease at the age of 30 and explained in his letter what receiving a heart transplant has meant to him. He talked about how he was only given six weeks to live before receiving a heart transplant, and encouraged others to become a donor.

“Chris is doing wonderful and today’s celebration is very special to me,” said Brandi Cunningham. “It’s bittersweet to just be able to celebrate that gift of life, and the fact that my husband has a second chance at life and watching his daughter (Addison) grow up.”

A flag with the Donate Life logo was raised on the flagpole in the Davis Medical Center’s Serenity Garden as part of the hospital’s month-long celebration of National Donate Life Month.

After the reading of Cunningham’s letter, those attending the celebration moved outside to the hospital’s Serenity Garden, where two flags with the words “Donate Life” were placed. One of the flags was raised on the flagpole, while another was hung in a sitting area within the garden.

Hospitals across the United States fly the Donate Life flag in April to signal their support of donation, to serve as a display of unity, remembrance and hope, and to honor those touched by donation and transplantation 

Donate Life Month is about the importance of registering your decision to be a donor, honoring deceased and living donors, and celebrating the lives they saved. It is the generosity of donors and donor families that makes saving lives through transplantation possible, officials said. 

More than 100,000 people in the United States are waiting for an organ transplant, including 2,500 people in western Pennsylvania and West Virginia. At least 20 individuals will die each day without receiving a transplant they need. A new person is added to the transplant waiting list every 10 minutes in the U.S.

For more information on how to become a donor, go to www.donatelife.net.