Shands Transplant Center team members ride for life

Shands Transplant Center clinicians are trading in their white lab coats for helmets, padded shorts and clip-in shoes.

April is national Donate Life Month, and Shands Transplant Center team members will participate in the eighth annual Katie Ride for Life, a cycling and walking event on Amelia Island to raise awareness for organ donation and transplantation.

The event will be held Saturday, April 21 at the Fernandina Beach Recreation Center on Amelia Island. Everyone is welcome register with the Shands Transplant Center at the University of Florida team at www.KatieRideforLife.org.

This is the first year that Shands Transplant Center will be an official sponsor of the event, and participating team members are eager to support the cause.

“This fitness philanthropy is a wonderful showcase of how organ donation and transplantation help patients lead healthy and active lifestyles,” said Juan C. Salgado, M.D., a UF College of Medicine assistant professor of medicine and associate director of the Lung Transplantation Program. “More than a dozen employees have already registered to walk or cycle to support the mission, donors, donor family and recipients.”

Shands Transplant Center team members also will have an educational booth at the reception after the event where attendees can ask clinicians questions, collect informational materials and toss organ-shaped pillows into a small basketball hoop to promote organ donation and win prizes.

Shands Transplant Center has performed many firsts in Florida transplantation and has the expertise to work with higher-risk patients.

There are currently more than 110,000 individuals waiting for transplants in the United States. For more information about organ donation or to sign up on Florida’s organ and tissue donor registry, please visit www.DonateLifeFlorida.org.