Dozens of transplant recipients, donor family members and patients, including a Royal Oak family, hopped on a bus at the Northwood Shopping Center on Wednesday morning to join in the Donate Life Capitol Celebration in Lansing to celebrate the miracle of organ, eye and tissue transplantation.
"I am here because my husband, Randy Smith, had a double transplant on Oct. 19, 2012 and he is a miracle," said Mary Ellen Bell, of Royal Oak.
Bell is extremely grateful to her husband's donor and the donor's family and the people at Gift of Life for the work they do to make donor transplants possible.
Smith had a kidney and a liver transplant.
"I realize how lucky I am to have received organs, but there are still other people out there that need transplants" Smith said.
[Read Smith's story: The Greatest Gift: In Death, Life is Delivered]
More than 3,100 critically ill people are waiting in Michigan for a transplant to save their lives, according to Gift of Life Michigan.
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