Transplant Awareness Campaign Features Ross 4-Year-Old

ROSS TOWNSHIP, PA - Rockland Harvey is just four years old, but he’s appearing in a statewide ad campaign to encourage people to become organ donors. Rockland was the beneficiary of an organ donor when he was an infant.

At birth, Rockland was born with a tumor covering his eye. Following a successful corneal transplant, he is a healthy child starring in Donate Life Pennsylvania’s The #HumanSide of Donation campaign.

The campaign starring various organ recipients is meant to increase awareness on the subject across the state. According to Donate Life Pennsylvania, 95 percent of people claim to support organ donation but just 48 percent of state residents are registered organ donors.

Why is that percentage disappointing? Because every day, 20 people in the United States die while waiting for a life-saving organ transplant. And every 10 minutes, another person’s name is added to the national waiting list.

Rockland’s mother, Danielle, Harvey, tells the boy’s compelling story in a video on Donate Life Pennsylvania’s website.

“When he was born, it was really just obvious that something was wrong,” she says. “But we knew we couldn’t just do nothing. Light wasn’t going to get to the back of his eye, and he wouldn’t have developed properly.”

She continues: “Each one of his birthdays so far, instead of gifts, we ask that people donate instead because we say they gave him the best gift of all - the gift of sight.”

Photo via YouTube.

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