PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — About 12,000 people attended the 26th annual Gift of Life Donor Dash on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway Sunday morning to show support for organ and tissue donors and recipients. Among them were friends and family of an organ recipient who signed on to be a donor, herself, before she died.
“We really want to promote donations at the Dash and also celebrate and have a fun day,” said Rick Hasz, president and CEO of Gift of Life Donor Program. “It’s really a great day to celebrate the success the transplant brings.”
Hasz said teams in support of donor families and teams in support of transplant recipients participate every year, as well as surgeons who have performed transplants, and even their patients.
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Team Melika Rose
This is the eighth year for Debra White Roberts of Germantown. The Roberts family walked in memory of Debra’s daughter, Melika Rose Roberts, who died about 10 years ago, and to advocate for the importance of organ donation.
“Melika was born with chronic renal failure,” explained her mom, Debra White Roberts, of Germantown. “Melika was one who got a Kidney transplant at the age of 10. So we had 10 good years with that kidney which gave us plenty of love, laughter and joy.“
Melika died at the age of 19, but just before that, she signed up to be an organ donor, herself.
“Her ID said ‘Organ Donor,’ so we knew her wishes when she passed, so it made it a lot easier for us to say ‘yes’ to organ donation.”
Debra says Melika’s donated corneas helped two people with their sight, and donated skin helped others.
Family and friends on Team Melika Rose on Sunday wore purple, her favorite color. Debra said they still feel Melika’s presence.
“We always say, ‘Melika is here and she is leading us on.’”
'Three days to live'
Another woman who walked on Sunday owes her life to an organ donor.
2019 seemed like a normal year for Jennifer Rouse — until she ended up at the top of an organ transplant list. She was in acute liver failure due to Hepatitis A, which she had contracted from something she ate.
“The doctors told me I had three hours to live,” Rouse recalled.
“So that was a Friday. My family was notified on Sunday that they found a donor for me, and that Monday was my surgery.”
She was out of the hospital only a week later.
While she was sick, her friends and family formed the team Fight like Rouse to raise money for her recovery.
Jennifer now walks at the Donor Dash because of what she calls one of the most terrifying moments of her life, and for those who are suffering the same.
Gift of Life’s Hasz says 5,000 people locally are waiting for a transplant and it only takes about 30 seconds to sign up to become a donor. That 30 seconds, he said, can mean a lifetime for somebody else.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misspelled Melika Rose Roberts' name. The article has been edited to reflect the correction.