WILMINGTON — Midway through its Ohio journey Monday, the Transplant Games of America torch stopped at Clinton Memorial Hospital Regional Health System and the Bureau of Motor Vehicles in Wilmington.

LifeCenter Organ Donor Network partnered with CMH and the BMV to honor local transplant patients and their families at two local torch stops.

As the TGA torch travels all over the state of Ohio, it will celebrate and promote the message of organ and tissue donation as well as the spirit of the Games. The Transplant Games of America will be held in Cleveland, Ohio June 10-15.

This Olympic-style competition is open to anyone, age 3-85, who has received a lifesaving organ transplant, including heart, liver, kidney, pancreas and lung. Participants compete by age group and by recipients and living donors. There’s also a special Youth Olympiad for younger transplant recipients.

Anyone interested in joining Team Ohio or learning more about the Transplant Games can visit www.lifepassiton.org.

Locally, more than 700 people are on the waiting list for an organ transplant and nationally, more than 120,000 people are on the waiting list. Every day, 21 people die waiting for a transplant in the U.S.

LifeCenter encourages and coordinates the donation of human organs and tissues for transplantation in order to save, enhance and change lives through donation. Life Center serves 16 counties in southwest Ohio, northern Kentucky and southeast Indiana.

Pictured at CMH are liver transplant recipient, Don Melillo; Shelby LaPine, mother of Luke LaPine, an organ and tissue donor; and Vickie Jackson, mother of four-time organ donor, Brandon; along with LifeCenter team members and Tim Prestridge, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operations Officer at CMH and Kris Haasl, Chief Nursing Officer at CMH.

http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2016/03/web1_Transplant-Torch_cmyk.jpgPictured at CMH are liver transplant recipient, Don Melillo; Shelby LaPine, mother of Luke LaPine, an organ and tissue donor; and Vickie Jackson, mother of four-time organ donor, Brandon; along with LifeCenter team members and Tim Prestridge, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operations Officer at CMH and Kris Haasl, Chief Nursing Officer at CMH.