WESTWOOD, Kan. — April is National Donate Life Month. We learn how one life can save up to eight people through organ donation. 

Two people close to the donation process helped raise the flag at exactly 1:08 p.m. Tuesday outside the Midwest Transplant Network.

A grateful heart transplant recipient and a donor family hoist a flag in the air — encouraging others to donate life. 

“Organ donation is the biggest gift someone can gift,” Widman said. “It is so important to say yes.”

Widman was born with a congenital heart defect. 

He received a heart transplant in 2017, finding a second chance with his wife and two kids. 

“It means that I could live on, it means that I can see my kids grow up, graduate college, start a family of their own,” Widman said. “So, grateful that a family made the decision to donate their loved ones organs and I was the lucky recipient.”

Kari Johnston made that decision when her husband died six year ago. 

Eric Driskell was the football coach at Blue Valley, and missed dearly by Kari and their two daughters. 

“Eric was never coming back to us, and we knew that, and that was hard, but knowing that he would help somebody else not lose their family or their dad or their father prematurely when they didn’t have to,” Johnston said. “It meant a lot.”

Heroes, like Driskell, who saved lives through the gift of donation were honored with a moment of remembrance and bubble blown in the wind. 

“Bubbles help to remind us how beautiful and yet fragile life can be,” President and CEO Jan Finn. said.

Every organ donor can save up to eight lives and tissue donors can save up to 150 people, according to Finn. 

“So, it’s truly a miracle when we’re able to offer a gift to families,’ Finn said. “They know that the life all throughout its life and then obviously leaving a legacy such as this.”

Finn encourages you to join the registry or look into it. More information here.