Today Is So. Utah’s Chance To Touch Someone’s Heart

Have you ever heard of a donor wedding?

A quick Google search will give you both video and text links to dozens of them.

Basically, it involves a loved one who has passed on and was also an organ donor. Sometimes couples who are getting married will invite the recipient of one of these organs to participate in the wedding as a proxy for the lost loved one.

It could be a parent, a sibling or perhaps a child who died.

That was the case in a now famous case in Alaska when a groom got in touch with a man who was the recipient of a heart from his bride's late son, who had passed away a few years earlier.

Unbeknownst to his bride, Kelly Turney had arranged for heart recipient Jacob Kilby to attend the wedding and be a part of the ceremony. His fiancé Becky Turney's expression was priceless when she learned of the kind act and the video and photos have now gone viral of the "donor wedding."

Along with Valentine's Day, today is National Donor Day. Observed every year on Feb. 14, National Donor Day is an observance dedicated to spreading awareness and education about organ, eye and tissue donation.

In Utah, you can register to be an organ donor at yesutah.org or RegisterMe.org, although officials counsel you to talk to your family about your wishes (the last thing a family wants in time of tragedy is for a surgery team to run in without notice and start cutting up the dying loved one).

St. George also has an annual fun run in April -- Heroes In Disguise 5K -- to help raise money and awareness of organ, tissue and eye donation.

Intermountain Health, which owns many hospitals in Utah (including St. George Regional) has an organ donor program that includes opportunities for live organ donations of kidneys and livers.

"Becoming an organ donor is a powerful act of compassion and generosity," reads Intermountain Health's website.

And it may just get you invited to a donor wedding.

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