Look for Connor Randall in the
The 23-year-old college student from Arvada and other local tissue and organ recipients will be waving from the Donate Life Colorado float as it winds through downtown Denver on Friday and Saturday nights.
The recipients are the stars of a new awareness campaign sponsored by national nonprofit Donor Alliance, and it will be seen on billboards, advertisements, online and in driver’s license materials across Colorado and Wyoming.
Randall said it’s a way to honor the two unknown heart donors who saved his life while encouraging others to register through
“Every day I’m profoundly grateful to be alive and am powerfully aware that I am because of the generosity of two donors and their families,” Randall said. “Because of this, I am a longtime advocate for the cause of organ and tissue donation.”
Randall doesn’t remember his first heart transplant — he was only 6 months old. He was diagnosed with a deadly heart condition and received his first heart transplant on Mother’s Day in 1991. A healthy and relatively normal childhood abruptly changed when he was 11 and his body rejected the heart.
After one year on a waiting list, he received another heart transplant in the summer of 2005, just before starting eighth grade.
He’s now a student at Regis University and stays active as a drummer in a punk band.
According to Donate Life Colorado, there are 2,500 people in the state waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant.
“Our inspiring group of transplant recipients will demonstrate to spectators the hope and amazing possibilities of organ, eye and tissue transplantation,” said Sue Dunn, president and CEO of Donor Alliance, said of their presence in the parade. “We hope our message will inspire Colorado and Wyoming residents to register as donors on their state registries, if they have not already. It is an easy and important way to give back to the community and patients in need.”
Austin Briggs: 303-954-1729, abriggs@denverpost.com or twitter.com/abriggs
