TORONTO - Numbers released today by the Trillium Gift of Life Network show a record number of Ontario residents have registered to be organ donors.
The number registered to donate is 3.2 million -- or 27 per cent of the eligible population.
That's up from 25 per cent last year and 16 per cent in 2008.
Terry Ward of Belleville, Ontario gave permission for her son Aaron Murray's organs to be donated after he died in a car accident because she knew he would want to donate.
Ward's father benefited from a heart transplant 27 years ago which made the issue important to Murray.
Gift of Life Network says that over the last year, 271 deceased donors saved the lives of 960 people, while 278 living donors helped 213 kidney recipients and 65 liver recipients.
The organization also says 19-hundred-53 tissue donors provided eyes, skin, heart valves or bone to benefit those in need.
