TULSA -- An Oklahoma organization dedicated to organ recovery and donation broke its record for the fourth year in a row for saving nearly 500 lives.
Cheryl Manley lost her 16-year-old daughter back in 1996 after a car accident. She decided to donate her organs, which in turn saved three people's lives.
"Her whole idea was to help people and I believe that's really why we made that decision in the first place," said Manley.
Manley now volunteers with LifeShare, an organization that facilitated the donation of her daughter's organs.
"It is one of the few organizations for me personally that literally saves lives," said Manley.
481 lives in 2017 to be exact, thanks to the 183 donors, which is three more than their record in 2016.
One life saved being Karen Hoyt, who had a liver disease diagnosis in 2010, then cancer in 2014.
"It really became a reality to me that my body was declining and I was dying," said Hoyt.
In 2015 after several rounds of painful chemo, a 17-year-old boy had a traumatic brain injury.
"As he took his last breath, Mom decided to do something good," said Hoyt.
His mother donated her son's organs, which saved five lives including Hoyt because of his liver.
"He became my bud, I call him my bud," said Hoyt.
She vows to stay active with Bud, in honor of him. Last year she went to Spain to compete in the World Transplant Games.
"I did bring home the gold so I'm the fastest female cyclist in the world with a solid organ transplant," said Hoyt.
Manley volunteers with LifeShare and speaks about her experience to help others through organ donation.
Both of these women had their lives drastically change after horrible circumstances, but thank LifeShare for making them feel whole again.
"They just take chaos and illness and tragedy and they turn it into a golden moment," said Hoyt.
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