The 2025 achievement comes as more than 1,600 patients in the state still await life-saving transplants.
SEATTLE — Washington state reached a historic organ donation milestone last year with 337 donors providing organs that saved 930 lives, the most in LifeCenter Northwest’s 28-year history.
The achievement comes as more than 1,600 patients in the state still await life-saving transplants.
Jean Allenbach has seen the impact of life-saving donations. Her daughter, Mo Allenbach, registered as an organ donor at age 15 when she obtained her driver’s permit. After Mo died by suicide, her organs saved lives.
“Her life was going on to have meaning, and that really kept me going, knowing that she was saving six lives,” Jean Allenbach said.
Jean Allenbach adopted Mo when the child was nearly 3 years old. She described her daughter as radiating happiness and pure joy.
“Mo was in foster care since birth and came to live with me right before she turned three, and I adopted her as a single mom, and she was just the love of my life,” Jean Allenbach said.
Mo battled mental health struggles and received treatment.
“The light in this amazing, happy child of mine just overnight went dark,” her mother recalled.
The impact of organ donation became personal for Jean Allenbach when she met Marcella, who received Mo’s lungs.
“She has energy and spunk and runs around where before her lung transplant, they said she had days to weeks to live,” Jean Allenbach said.
In Mo’s memory, Jean Allenbach started an organization called Mo Kindness and distributes bracelets bearing that message throughout her Magnolia neighborhood and beyond. She has become an advocate for organ donation, speaking at Harborview, the University of Washington, and the state Capitol to encourage people to register as donors.
“Her different organs continue to help people, and other families don’t have to have a loss,” Jean Allenbach said.
