The Fran Haasch Law Group has contributed $2,500 toward LifeLink patient financial assistance and research initiatives benefiting organ and tissue donation and transplantation.
The gift is part of Haasch’s 20th-anniversary celebration, where she is dividing $20,000 among local nonprofit organizations that align with causes she’s passionate about – homelessness, veterans, food insecurity, community health and wellness, animals and youth.
The LifeLink Foundation helps fulfill life-saving dreams for waiting transplant recipients through the generosity of organ and tissue donors. A separate LifeLink Legacy Fund® supports the foundation’s mission through transplant patient assistance and research efforts that help improve organ and tissue donation and transplantation outcomes.
“We wanted to support LifeLink because of the organization’s special connection to our friend and client, Kelly Wagner, whose 18-year-old son Cameron tragically died in a motorcycle accident in 2018,” Haasch said. “Because Cameron registered to be a tissue donor when he got his driver’s license, he was able to positively change more than 70 lives.”
Added Wagner, “Cameron moving on and leaving behind his legacy gave me a sense of peace and spark of life knowing he would live on while helping others. Knowing that someone’s child, mother, father or grandparent could have my son’s tissue and that he had an impact on so many families is the most amazing feeling.”
Saving and improving as many lives as possible
Haasch’s gift will help pre-and post transplant patients facing financial hardship and support Tampa General Hospital’s intern program that allows premed and medical students to work alongside a transplant research team.
“Everyone is feeling the economic impacts of COVID, and many patients and their caregivers lost sources of income while still needing to pay for patient care,” said Betsy Edwards, LifeLink Legacy Fund program manager. “Research initiatives allow us to learn ways to make transplants last longer and study the impact COVID has on transplant patient immune systems. And patient assistance helps ensure they’re set up for success and in a position where they’re able to take care of the organ or tissue they received.”
She added, “Fran and her firm’s generous contribution supports our mission of positively impacting organ donation, the transplant community and compassionate people like Kelly and Cameron who offer a hopeful future and gift of life to patients and families in need.”
