The Star Online Thursday, June 1, 2000 Donation campaign to highlight gift of life By Audrey Edwards PETALING JAYA: Why take your organs with you in death when they can be the gift of life to someone else? That is the question organ recipient Lee Chen Hoe, 42, poses to the public. Lee said that he was "born again'' after a kidney transplant in 1996. "When we die, our body will rot or be cremated. You should give your organs to someone else to continue their life. I'm grateful to the person, who donated his kidney to me,'' he said. Lee was relating his experiences as an organ recipient at the launch of the ORGAN-ise A Life campaign by healthcare programme company MediWise Sdn Bhd yesterday. The campaign will be held on June 3 to 8 to heighten awareness on organ donation and hopes to get 5,000 pledges from the public. MediWise managing director Tony Moses said that organ donation was picked by the company as a project because the concept was still new while some viewed it as taboo to donate organs. "We need to have a shift in thinking about organ donation. "There shouldn't be an emphasis on death but on what a person can do upon death and one can provide life and happiness to another person. "It can be one's last humane act in this world,'' he added. There have been 30,000 organ pledges since the end of 1996. This number is relatively small as it represents only 0.15% of the population.

NEW LEASE OF LIFE ... organ recipients Lee and Albert Gunaratnam. Lee had a kidney transplant four years ago while Gunaratnam had a heart transplant two years ago.