WSBS NEWS
Celebrated in April each year, National Donate Life Month is an entire month of local, regional and national activities to help encourage Americans to register as organ donors and to celebrate those that have saved lives through the gift of organ donation. As always, Tom Brady is doing his part to save the lives of people needing organ transplants through MatchingDonors.com.
As he increases the number of Super Bowl rings on his fingers, Tom Brady has also been increasing the number of lives he has saved through his work with The Tom Martinez Goal Line Fund through the online organ matching website MatchingDonors.com. The award winning nonprofit organization, based just a short drive from Gillette Stadium in Canton, MA, has become the most successful nonprofit organization that is finding living altruistic donors for patients needing lifesaving organ transplants. In 2004, MatchingDonors.com became the first organization to facilitate organ transplant through the Internet.
Pictured Paul Dooley CEO and Founder of MatchingDonors.com, Tom Brady, Tom Martinez
Tom Brady’s involvement with MatchingDonors.com began in 2009 when his long term quarterback coach Tom Martinez joined MatchingDonors.com in need of a kidney of his own. Martinez has coached the New England quarterback since he was a young boy living in California. So, it is no surprise that Brady jumped into action as soon as his mentor’s health began declining. He started a media campaign to urge people to sign on to MatchingDonors.com and test to see if they were a match for Martinez. Within weeks, over 600 people had signed up to test their donation potential. Many were tested until one donor made it through the entire process. The transplant date was set and everyone was eagerly waiting. Then, a few days before his lifesaving kidney transplant, in February 2012 Tom Martinez unexpectedly passed away from a massive heart attack during a routine dialysis treatment on his 66th birthday.
His daughter, Linda Martinez, spoke about her father’s commitment to save lives, Three weeks before his untimely death he created the Tom Martinez Goal Line Fund for MatchingDonors.com to help underprivileged people needing transplants to find living altruistic donors. My father’s fund has already helped save hundreds of people in need of a kidney or organ transplant, but more can be done. When Tom created the Tom Martinez Goal Line Fund, he said to his daughter Linda, I am thrilled that even if I cannot be saved at least the donors and awareness we brought to MatchingDonors.com will save many other lives.
Since then, Tom Brady has honored Tom Martinez’s memory and passion by continuously offering support to MatchingDonors.com. He has also promoted them in the news and on the radio, saying, MatchingDonors worked very hard to try to help Tom out. This is creating awareness for the issues that people have that are looking for donors and cannot find them, or the stigma attached to people that actually give organs, a lot of people just do not really have the right information. Like I said, we worked pretty hard to help Tom and unfortunately the time ran out. I am glad some other people really got some help, and like I said MatchingDonors, they have been involved in a lot of those cases over the years and they are a great organization.