April is National Donate Life Month, and we’d like to encourage everyone to consider being an organ, eye or tissue donor.

More than 3,700 people living in Georgia are currently waiting for a potentially life-saving transplant, and a new patient is added to the national waiting list every 11 minutes, according to LifeLink of Georgia. LifeLink also states that 18 people die daily, due to the lack of available organ, eye or tissue donors.

However, there is good news. Already, 11,422 people in Decatur County have registered their decision to “give the gift of life,” and become donors. June Faircloth, a local transplant advocacy group representative for LifeLink, said that 1,584 new people have signed up since Jan. 1, 2012.

We encourage all residents to learn the facts about donation and sign up at Georgia’s donor registry online at www.donatelifegeorgia.org.