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When Erin Morris attended an organ donor/transplant awareness event at the Franklin County Annex on April 19, she was there as way more than a casual supporter of the cause.

Morris had a liver transplant in 2014 and said she is very grateful for the second lease on life she now has. She stressed that the public needs to consider donating organs when they update their driver’s licenses because, in her case, someone’s kind gesture made a life-saving difference.

“A lot of people don’t realize it until it affects their families,” Morris said about increasing awareness of how important being an organ donor is. “I would like for people to start realizing this.”

Misty Brantley attended the event with a perspective from the other side of the aisle — she had donated a kidney to her father.

She explained the difference of her father not having to go through dialysis treatments to clean his blood.

“You are not really living if you are tied to a machine,” Brantley said.

She, like Morris, has been an avid supporter of increasing awareness about donating organs.

Franklin County Mayor Chris Guess proclaimed April as National Donate Life Month in Franklin County. The proclamation ceremony was attended by Franklin County Clerk’s Office employees who work through the organ-donation process when drivers renew their licenses.

The proclamation says that Tennessee Donor Services is dedicated to saving lives through organ, eye and tissue donations throughout the state.

The proclamation says that 106,000 Americans and 3,000 Tennesseans are waiting for life-saving organ transplants, and each “hero” donor can give the gift of life to eight people and each tissue donor can improve another 75 lives.

The most effective way to address the issue is to educate and encourage Tennesseans about registering as organ donors with the Donate Life Tennessee Registry, DonateLifeTN.org or at driver services centers, the proclamation says.