A group of people will celebrate their heritage at Westfest this weekend as well as a second chance at life as they work to encourage people to register to be organ donors.
"People's lives get to be saved. My life was saved," Darren Sinkule said.
Sinkule got a second chance at life thanks to an organ donor. In May 2013, he got a heart transplant.
"I'm blessed beyond measure. God gave me the ability to continue to enjoy life," Sinkule said.
That is why he and several other community members from West will be registering people this weekend at Westfest to increase awareness on the importance of donating organs. They will be doing this with help from the Texas Organ Sharing Alliance.
"Obviously we want to encourage everybody to be life-saving organ donors. But, especially minorities because more than half of the waiting list is made up of minorities, and transplants are usually more successful if the donor and the recipient share the same genetic similarity," Michelle Segovia from the Texas Organ Sharing Alliance said.
According to the Texas Organ Sharing Alliance, there is a severe shortage of organ donors in the country. More than 11,000 Texans are on the national waiting list in need of an organ transplant.
"A part of me tends to be humble in that it was my purpose. God gives us purposes," Kay Sulak said, who donated a kidney to her brother.
For more information visit, www.txorgansharing.org.
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