POTTSVILLE, Pa. -- April is National Donate Life Month, a month when Americans are encouraged to register as organ, eye and tissue donors.
It's an important time of the year for Ronald Boris and Mark Hudock who received lifesaving heart transplants, and Edith Moyer who requested her mom's organs be donated.
"This is my hero right here. Eddie Bates. He saved my life. He was an organ donor. He had a brain aneurysm at his mom's house. He was 31 years of age," Boris said.
"I said 'whatever you can take of my mom's, you can have them. I would like to help as many people as I possibly can and that's something she would want.' Her liver went to a woman I never met. Her lungs went to research to help thousands and thousands of people," Moyer said.
The message from these three who have been impacted directly by organ donations: consider becoming a donor.
"There's a lot of people out there waiting on this list and I'm living proof that it works, so please, please become an organ or tissue donor. It's the most important gift anyone can give anybody, giving somebody a second chance of life," Boris said.
Along Centre Street in Pottsville, the city is raising awareness for Donate Life Month. A Donate Life flag is hanging outside of city hall.
"Those people who have heart trouble get checked out," Hudock advised.
For more information on Donate Life Month and how to become an organ donor, click here.