CT mom advocates for organ & tissue donation decades after loss
Carolyn Fletcher lost her 16-year-old son in a car crash. She now works as an organ donation advocate, educating people on the importance of organ and tissue donation.
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Carolyn Fletcher donated her son's organs after he died from a brain injury sustained in a car crash. That was in 1998. Her son was only 16, and she said organ donation was not something they talked about in their household.
"I knew the kind of kid he was. If he could speak to me, and I would ask him what he would want me to do, he would say 'mom, you should save somebody.'"
Now, Carolyn serves on the board of Donate Life Connecticut, and works a volunteer with New England Donor Services (NEDS), where she advocates in communities of color to encourage organ donation.
August is also recognized as National Multiethnic Donor Awareness Month, and during the month, the NEDS organization encourages donor registration within multiethnic communities, because they make up a significant portion of the national transplant waiting list often due to higher rates of conditions like diabetes and heart disease that can lead to organ failure.
"Here in New England, there are over 5,000 people who are on the transplant waiting list, and out of those 5,000 people, over 1,000 people are in Connecticut," said Mark Brevard, senior director of Community Outreach at New England Donor Services.
