The Donate Life flag is raised outside WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital on Tuesday. April is National Donate Life Month.

As multiple speakers came to the podium Tuesday morning at WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital to celebrate National Donate Life Month, they all said that organ donation isn’t just an opportunity to donate life — it’s also the chance to give hope.

“It gave us more time, more memories, and more moments we feared we may have lost,” said Amy White, a nuclear medicine technologist at WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital whose father will celebrate seven years in July with a successful heart transplant.

Those in attendance Tuesday watched the “Donate Life” flag rise up the flagpole outside the hospital’s main entrance, a reminder of the importance of organ donation and the lives changed through that gesture.

White said her father had always been active when he was younger, taking the family on bike rides and spending weekends at the community pool. But a diabetes diagnosis at age 40 changed that. He needed cardiac stents, a pacemaker and an internal defibrillator. Ultimately, he needed a heart transplant.

That finally came, and White’s father has been able to remain with his family. White made sure to mention that with every transplant success story, there is another side — another family whose unimaginable loss has allowed for someone else to live.

“Choosing to be an organ donor is a profound act of compassion, saving lives, restoring hope for a healthier future and bringing healing not only to the recipients, but to the families who love them today.”

For Kara McElree, who works at the Center for Organ Recovery and Education, this month isn’t just meaningful through her occupation. Her grandfather Howard Long — the founder of Coronet Foods whose name adorns the Howard Long Wellness Center — also received a heart transplant. He had dealt with heart disease for much of his life, suffering two heart attacks and undergoing quadruple bypass surgery all by age 48.

By the year 2000, McElree said he knew his only chance for a longer life was a transplant.

“The reason he was able to live to see 91, the reason he was able to watch his children grow up, meet his grandchildren and even hold his great grandchildren is because of a gift from someone he never met,” she said.

After that, she added, he became a strong advocate for organ donation.

“If he were standing here today … he would encourage you to be an organ donor,” McElree said. “Actually, he might hand your the card and force you to sign up or check your driver’s license.”

CORE has been fortunate to see more and more people choose to be organ donors, said CORE Chief Clinical Officer Chad Trahan. He said that in 2025, CORE marked its seventh consecutive year increasing the number of lives saved through organ donation through West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania.

“But the numbers, as remarkable as they may be, are more than just numbers,” he said. “They are people enjoying the future they were not sure they would have. The everyday moments after a transplant become priceless — a simple walk outside, a birthday, a clear view of a loved one’s face. Those moments are why we do what we do.”