Organ donors

Bill Sutton of Riverhead, managing editor at The Express News Group, is in urgent need of a kidney transplant. He has gone public with his diagnosis, hoping to raise awareness and find a living donor.

Since his transplant surgery five years ago, Ed Schaefer of Riverhead must take medication to prevent his body from rejecting his transplanted heart. Though he had both doses of the Moderna vaccine, he has no COVID antibodies because of his meds. That leaves him in a very vulnerable place as the virus surges anew.

Registering to be an organ donor does not affect your life but does change someone else's. Talk to your family about organ donation and consider being someone's hero.

Organ donors and recipients shared powerful stories at a National Organ Donor Enrollment Day event at Peconic Bay Medical Center.

A thank-you note forged a special bond between an Aquebogue heart transplant recipient and his donor's family .