A Waltham woman with a heart of gold trained
hard for the Boston Marathon this year and was prepared to run the 26-mile race
as a way to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Cynthia Lucero, who was 28, never finished
the race. Instead, she became the second person in the 106-year history of the
race to die in connection with the trauma such a grueling undertaking can have
on the human body.
At the 22nd mile, she collapsed, and the next
day she was taken off life support at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
Her death, though at terrible loss to her family and friends, was a miracle for
others who received the life-giving organs she could no longer use.
An 11-year-old girl received her heart, a
grandmother who had been expected to die in six months received her liver, and
a young woman now looks forward to a long, healthy life because she received
Ms. Lucero's kidney.
Ms. Lucero was a student at the Massachusetts
School of Professional Psychology in West Roxbury. Her goal in life was to help
others, so it's not surprising that she was an organ donor.
The young woman will be honored Sunday by her
Marathon training companions with a memorial and fund-raiser at Grafton High School
from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event will include a "memory mile" run at
noon around the high school track, a raffle and a silent auction of several
items, including Celtics tickets and a football autographed by members of the
New England Patriots.
Organizers hope to raise $5,000 to start a
scholarship and center in Ms. Lucero's name at the Massachusetts School of
Professional Psychology. It is a commendable idea and we wish them well.
Those who want to honor Ms. Lucero, however,
could also follow her example and become an organ donor.
According to the New England Organ Bank,
71,000 men, women and children wait for life-saving transplants, and that list
grows by one every 14 minutes. Every day, 16 people in the United States die
because of a lack of available donors.
It's not difficult to become an organ donor.
Donor cards and stickers are available to Massachusetts residents at the
Registry of Motor Vehicles, and they may also be obtained at several other
locations including the New England Organ Bank, 1-800-446-6362, and Donate Life
- Coalition on Donation www.shareyourlife.org.
Those who wish to donate to the center and
scholarship may make checks payable to the Massachusetts School of Professional
Psychology, 221 Rivermoor St., Boston, MA 02132