Volunteers with the nonprofit Donate Life, which will have a float in the Rose Parade that tells the story of five San Diego County residents who either donated organs or received them, are scheduled to visit with pre-transplant patients at Sharp Memorial Hospital Tuesday.
Representatives of the organization, which promotes organ donation, will bring roses with encouraging messages to pre-transplant patients at Sharp Memorial Hospital.
Two area residents who donated organs after they died will be depicted on the float on New Year’s Day, including Sam McCrow, a 17-year-old who suffered a fatal brain hemorrhage in 2007 while surfing at Mission Beach and whose kidney was given to a now-7-year-old boy. The other will be Jackie Billings, an El Cajon resident who died last February of meningitis at the age of 52.
McCrow and Billings will each be depicted in floragraphs, which are portraits recreated using floral materials.
Riding on the float will be Mike Adams, an Oceanside man who is a double- lung recipient, and John Brockington, who was given a kidney 13 years ago. Diane Brockington, his wife and donor, will walk alongside.
John Brockington played for Ohio State in the 1969 and 1971 Rose Bowls, defeating USC in the former and losing to Stanford in the latter. He went on to star in the NFL and now runs a San Diego-based foundation dedicated to organ donation.
According to Donate Life, more than 2,100 San Diegans are on transplant waiting lists, and 88 died last year before receiving their needed organs.
—City News Service
