UC Davis Health System Supports TDL

The following article is from the UC Davis Health System's employee Intranet page:

Health system cycling team in Race Across America
June 13, 2007

For the third straight year, UC Davis Health System is represented by a team in the Race Across America, a bicycle race covering a 3,043-mile route from Oceanside, Calif. to Atlantic City, N.J.

As it had in the two previous years, Team Donate Life is using the race as a platform for educating the public about the lifesaving benefits of organ donations. Last year, the team took third place in the corporate challenge division of the race.

The members of Team Donate Life this year are Lorenzo Rossaro, chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology; Dave Stoker, programmer for the UC Davis Cancer Center; Karen Lehman, chief administrative officer for the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation; Sherri Stone, academic manager for the Department of Radiology; Ruth LeBlanc, administrative assistant at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute; Eleanor Mark, administrative assistant at the Center for Continuing Nursing Education; and Dee Larsen, a patient records abstractor for the neurosciences clinic.

The race began June 12 in Oceanside and will take six-to-eight days to complete. Updates on the race are available on the Web at www.teamdonatelife.com or www.raceacrossamerica.org.

"People ask me why I'm doing this," said Stone. "It's simple: to save lives. I hope to inspire people to think about the fact that a young, single mother like Sonja Archie, who desperately needs a new heart and kidney, wants only to see her 7-year-old daughter grow up. I'm riding with her picture on my bike, in the belief that she will get her second chance."

Team Donate Life has grown from one team in 2005 and 2006 to six teams this year, including the first all corporate women's team. Team Donate Life's 32 riders now make up 20 percent of Race Across America's entrants.

This year, Team Donate Life received the endorsement of Donate Life America, a national organization committed to empowering individuals to sign up as organ and tissue donors on their state's registry (www.donatelife.net). In California alone, more than 1.4 million individuals have signed up on its new state registry in just the past 26 months. That brings hope to the 97,000 people in the United States waiting for an organ transplant.