Yellow Duck Day 2017: Part 1
It's finally here! Yellow Duck Day 2017!
Yellow Duck Day is marked annually on April 15th, the date that the Little Yellow Duck Project was launched back in 2014. This date was chosen as it marked a year to the day that I lost my best friend (and my son's godmother), Clare Cruickshank.
As many of you will already know, Clare was in desperate need of a double lung transplant due to end-stage cystic fibrosis. At just 26 years of age, Clare ran out of time due to the chronic shortage of donor organs in the UK. Clare had decided beforehand, that she would want to be a donor if she didn't make it. As a result her corneas were donated to restore sight to two young adults in their twenties.Clare was crazy about little yellow ducks and collected them in all shapes and sizes. It was an example of the sweet, amusing and fun-loving person that she was. No one could feel sad or downhearted when Clare was around! So they seemed perfect to be used as an emblem for spreading happiness around the world, as well as awareness of how we can all save lives through the gifts of blood, bone marrow/stem cell, organ and tissue donation.
Clare had an incredibly pragmatic attitude to organ donation. She once summed the situation up so simply to me when we were discussing people choosing to be organ donors..."If you've got a pair of shoes that you don't need anymore, you take them to a charity shop don't you? Then someone else can use them. What's the difference with passing on your organs?"If we all thought more
like this, people like Clare would still be with us today. Thanks to this attitude, Clare's corneas went on to give sight to two other people when she no longer needed them. What an amazing legacy for such a beautiful person to leave behind. And now, through the Little Yellow Duck Project, more people will hopefully do the same.Today has been a huge success in spreading awareness of the project and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped make it happen. I'll be updating on everything achieved in my next post. But don't forget, the Little Yellow Duck Project runs 365 days a year, so please keep making those ducks and passing on their life-saving messages!