Tonisha Daniels, a 15-year-old from Dolton, has been waiting for the last year for a liver donation to treat her cirrhosis.
She was overcome with emotion Monday and shed tears as she thanked those involved with organ donation awareness for the opportunity to tell her story to people across Illinois.
Her plight and the story of Ian Fitch, a 10-year-old boy from Lake in the Hills who has been awaiting a liver donation for most of his life, will be featured in new commercials aimed at encouraging organ donation.
Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White unveiled the ad campaign Monday at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Lincoln Park. The effort aims to promote awareness of the need for organ donations during the second national Donate Life Month, held in April.
“Even though Illinois leads the nation . . . in our donor-registration lists, there were still about 209 people who died last year here waiting for an organ donation,” White said.
In Illinois, about 4,400 people are waiting for an organ. This year’s campaign intends to personalize the need for organs with the two children’s stories, White said.
The commercials, which cost the state about $1 million, will air across Illinois on radio and TV for the next four weeks, said Dave Druker, spokesman for White’s office.
Organ-donation rates are much lower among minorities, particularly African-Americans and Latinos, according to statistics provided by the Illinois Coalition on Donation, a non-profit group. About 60 percent of organs come from whites, while only 27 percent come from African-Americans and 17 percent from Latinos. In partnership with the state, the Illinois Coalition on Donation has also printed brochures in Spanish and English.
“There are a lot of misconceptions out there, especially in the African-American community, that somehow a doctor will take worse care of you if you sign the back of your organ donation card,” said Kim McCullough, spokeswoman for the Illinois Coalition on Donation. “That’s simply not true.”
The radio ad featuring Daniels specifically addresses some of the concerns African-Americans may have about organ donation, Druker said.
Fitch’s parents said they were pleased to have their son help spread awareness about organ donation. In the commercial, he and his younger sister talk about how anyone who donates an organ is a hero.
“We’re happy that our son at 10 can make a difference this early in his life,” his father, John Fitch, said. The boy was born with biliary atresia, a rare bile-duct disorder.
Daniels said she hopes to be able to pass on a ring that she and her mother designated as a family heirloom to her own children.
“It’s for the future,” she said.
