Tuedsay, Oct. 28, Wendy Marx Ellington passed away at age 36 while awaiting a liver transplant. Just after graduating from Duke University in 1989 and moving to San Francisco, Wendy was struck with a severe case of Hepatitis B that destroyed her liver and left her in a coma. Given 24 hours to live, her life was saved at the last minute when a donor liver was located.
Wendy required a second liver in 1992 and from there went on to live a full life. She had an exciting career at the forefront of the Internet revolution, co-founded the Wendy Marx Foundation for Organ Donor Awareness with her brother and Olympic champion Carl Lewis, and in 2000 married entrepreneur David Ellington.
Wendy had a zest for life that was inspiring to all who were lucky enough to have met her. According to her brother, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jeffrey Marx, who chronicled Wendy's struggles in the 2000 book, It Gets Dark Sometimes: My Sister's Fight to Live and Save Lives, "All she ever asked anybody to do for her was to get vaccinated against Hepatitis B and to talk to their families about organ donation." Sadly, her doctors believe she would have been able to survive another transplant and continue leading a full life had a liver been found in time.
In honor of Wendy, I felt compelled to write this letter to urge you to consider becoming an organ donor. Currently, over 50,000 people in the US alone are awaiting organ transplants. Each day, 16 of these people die while a new person is added to the list every 13 minutes.
My friendship with Jeff and his sister has given me a tremendous appreciation for organ donation. It truly is the gift of life.
Douglas Epstein
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