Bethlehem Township, Pa., resident Sue Seidel’s son was killed in a motorcycle crash when he was only 22, but she doesn’t mind talking about it.
Telling what happened to Brian, a 1998 Freedom High School graduate, allows Seidel to also share how his organs were used to save and enhance the lives of nine people.
Sharing the story of Brian’s organ donation and encouraging others to become organ donors is what Seidel says has helped keep her going in the 11 1/2 years since his death. She serves as president of the Lehigh Valley Coalition for Organ and Tissue Donation, a chapter of the Gift of Life program.
“Quite honestly, it’s been my lifeline,” Seidel said. “If I didn’t have the Gift of Life and being able to share Brian’s story … and knowing from his untimely death that something good came out of it, I don’t know how I’d survive.”
The local chapter is holding a fashion show Saturday for organ donation awareness and to raise funds for more education efforts. The show is at noon at The Outlets at Sands Bethlehem; tickets are $25 and include drinks and appetizers.
Seidel will serve as a model in the show, which is the local chapter’s fourth annual.
“Being around the other recipients and other donor families — it’s just like any other support group. You’re there for each other,” she said.
Other models include a 3 1/2-year-old girl from Bucks County whose life was saved by a donated liver, and a 7 1/2-year-old boy from Lancaster County in need of a liver donation, said Mark Richardson, of Hanover Township, Northampton County, who has undergone two organ donations.
Richardson, 44, was born with blocked ureters. He received his first donated kidney from his mother in 1988 and received a second one from a deceased donor in 2007.
With the average transplanted kidney lasting 15 to 20 years, there’s a good chance Richardson will eventually need another.
“Just because you get a transplant, it’s not a cure. It’s just a temporary situation,” he said. “There are so many people waiting for organ donors, but not enough people sign up.”
That’s why Richardson got involved with the Lehigh Valley Coalition for Organ and Tissue Donation and Saturday’s fashion show. The show is less about selling tickets and more about getting the coalition’s cause before a large crowd of shoppers, he said.
“If we have five people come that day who weren’t organ donors and signed up to be organ donors, it’s a success,” he said.
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