As Donate Life Month comes to a close for 2025, let us celebrate all those who have given or received organs and tissues, and commemorate all the ways our Ascension Sacred Heart facilities honored donors and recipients. Choosing to donate offers hope to those waiting for transplants, providing them a chance at a renewed life.
In Pensacola, our very first kidney transplant patient was featured as the Blue Wahoos’ “Home Run for Life” patient, circling the bases in front of a sellout crowd in celebration of Donate Life Month. The Pensacola Kidney Transplant team also held its first bell-ringing ceremony for donors and recipients as they are discharged from the hospital.
At our facility in Panama City, care teams raised the Donate Life flag outside the hospital in honor of this commemorative month. Attendees learned about the importance of organ and tissue donation from special guests, hospital leaders and partner organizations such as LifeNet Health, LifeQuest and Lions World Vision. Multiple media partners attended the event, sharing the perspectives of many of our donors and recipients. Victoria Martin, Sacred Heart Bay trauma nurse, was honored for her advocacy. Martin continually shares her family’s experience with her brother becoming a donor and encourages families to talk about organ donation.
One donor can save up to nine people through organ donation, provide sight for two people through cornea donation, restore health for more than 150 people through tissue donation and help countless others through medical breakthroughs related to research donation. As we remember Donate Life Month 2025, please read our Pensacola Living Donor Coordinator’s Op-Ed for news outlets in Florida and Alabama which highlights the impact people in our own communities can make.
