Pats’ Brady teams with MatchingDonors.com
By GuestCelebrated in April each year, National Donate Life Month is an entire month of local, regional and national activities to help encourage Americans to register as organ donors and to celebrate those who have saved lives through the gift of organ donation. As always, Tom Brady, the legendary Patriots quarterback, is doing his part to save the lives of people needing organ transplants through Canton-based MatchingDonors.com.
MatchingDonors.com CEO/Founder Paul Dooley with Patriots QB Tom Brady and quarterback coach Tom Martinez
As he increases the number of Super Bowl rings on his fingers, Brady has also been increasing the number of lives he has saved through his work with the Tom Martinez Goal Line Fund through the online organ-matching website MatchingDonors.com. The award-winning organization has become the most successful nonprofit that is finding living altruistic donors for patients needing lifesaving organ transplants. In 2004, MatchingDonors.com became the first organization to facilitate organ transplant through the Internet.
Brady’s involvement with MatchingDonors began in 2009 when his long-term quarterback coach, Tom Martinez, joined MatchingDonors in need of a kidney of his own. Martinez had coached the New England quarterback since he was a young boy living in California. So it was no surprise that Brady jumped into action as soon as his mentor’s health began declining. He started a media campaign to urge people to sign on to MatchingDonors.com and test to see if they were a match for Martinez. Within weeks, over 600 people had signed up to test their donation potential. Many were tested until one donor made it through the entire process. The transplant date was set and everyone was eagerly waiting. Then, in February 2012, a few days before his lifesaving kidney transplant — on his 66th birthday — Martinez unexpectedly passed away from a massive heart attack during a routine dialysis treatment.
His daughter, Linda Martinez, spoke about her father’s commitment to saving lives. “Three weeks before his untimely death he created the ‘Tom Martinez Goal Line Fund’ for MatchingDonors.com to help underprivileged people needing transplants to find living altruistic donors,” said Linda. “My father’s fund has already helped save hundreds of people in need of a kidney/organ transplant, but more can be done.” When Martinez created the Goal Line Fund, he said to Linda, “I’m thrilled that even if I can’t be saved, at least the donors and awareness we brought to MatchingDonors.com will save many other lives.”
Since then, Brady has honored Martinez’s memory and passion by continuously offering support to MatchingDonors.com. He has also promoted them in the news and the radio, saying, “MatchingDonors worked very hard to try to help Tom out … This is creating awareness for the issues that people have that are looking for donors and can’t find them, or the stigma attached to people that actually give organs. A lot of people just don’t really have the right information … Like I said, we worked pretty hard to help Tom and unfortunately, the time ran out … I’m glad some other people really got some help, and like I said MatchingDonors, they’ve been involved in a lot of those cases over the years and they’re a great organization.”
Brady’s push to raise awareness about MatchingDonors.com’s living organ donation program led to a number of people stepping up and becoming donors themselves, directly attributing the credit of their donation to the New England Patriots quarterback. As his efforts continue to save lives, MatchingDonors.com thanks Brady tremendously for everything he has done to spread lifesaving organ donation awareness over the past 10 years. Most recently, Brady donated to his late mentor’s fund after the NFL sold the highest bidding object of the 2018 NFL “My Cleats, My Cause” auction. Brady’s signed and game-worn custom cleats sold for $30,050, and a substantial portion of the proceeds were dedicated to the Tom Martinez Goal Line Fund.
Linda Martinez had this to say about Brady’s recent donation: “My father, Tom Martinez, taught more than football. He taught kindness, the value of hard work, and above all, gratitude. Tom Brady embodies those qualities. His continued support of MatchingDonors.com is an act of gratitude for his friendship with my father. Brady’s donation … is also a reflection of his kindness, which is saving lives … My father always said that although the media focused on Brady’s greatness as a quarterback, ‘he is actually an even better person than he is quarterback.’
“The Martinez family is very grateful that Brady continues to honor his coach by supporting the Tom Martinez Goal Line Fund at MatchingDonors.com. This allows my father to keep on helping others in need of life-saving organ transplants, even beyond his death.”
You can help save lives by donating to the Tom Martinez Goal Line Fund for MatchingDonors.com by going to www.TomMartinezGoalLineFund.com.
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