April is Donate Life Month, a month so designated to acknowledge the gift of life and quality of life made possible through organ and tissue donation. To help celebrate the success of organ and tissue donation, the Wyoming Medical Center, Donor Alliance and Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Bank will have a flag raising ceremony Monday at 10 am in the main lobby of Wyoming Medical Center.

Gary Loghry, regional donation consultant for Wyoming for Donor Alliance, says that even though the people of Wyoming have a better understanding and willingness to become donors, the need is still more than the number of people who are registered donors.

Waiting lists longer than list of potential donors:

"For the past few decades, the number of people needing organ transplants has continually raised. Currently there's about 110,000 people on the waiting list for an organ transplant, majority of those are waiting for kidneys, with liver transplantation needs being second. In Colorado and Wyoming there's over 2,000 people that are currently waiting for an organ transplant."

Mr. Loghry said the Donate Life Month ceremony at the medical center will celebrate some local donor success stories.

Local reasons to celebrate:

"Well, we are going to have a ceremony at the hospital. We are going to recognize the donors that have occurred at Wyoming Medical Center, and they're going to be there and we're going to recognize achievements. Wyoming Medical Center had six organ donors in 2010 and saved 21 lives. They did 24 tissue donors, and I believe they had 41 eye donors, and I believe 78 of those corneas were transplanted."

The flag raising ceremony will include a special flag to commemorate donors, recipients and people who are registered donors. The flag will fly on the corner of East 12th and Conwell Street throughout Donate Life Month.

You can hear an extended interview with Mr. Loghry on Report to Wyoming, broadcast Sunday at 7 am on all TownSquare Media stations and again Sunday night at 9 on K2 Radio, AM 1030.

More From K2 Radio