THE
POWER
OF ONE
Reg Green has become a powerful and effective
spokesman for organ donation
Giving Lifes
Greatest Gift
BY RO BERT K IENE R
ALTHOUGH IT HAS BEEN more
than 20 years since his seven-year-old
son Nicholas was killed during a fam-
ily vacation in Italy, for his father Reg
Green, sometimes it seems like yes-
terday. Sitting near the pool at his
home in Los Angeles, the white-
haired, 86-year-old former Fleet Street
journalist confesses, Theres not a
day that goes by that I dont think of
Nicholas and his funny little ways.
Green and his wife Maggie were on
a family holiday in 1994 with Nicho-
las, 7, and his sister Eleanor, 4, travel-
ing south from Naples on the auto-
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strada when a car came alongside
them. Inside were two masked men
who yelled at the Greens to pull over.
Without warning the highway bandits
fired shots into the Greens car, first
shattering the rear passenger window,
then the drivers window. Maggie
quickly turned around to make sure
the children were safe. Both appeared
to be sleeping peacefully. Green man-
aged to speed away and outpace the
robbers, but when he and Maggie
stopped at the scene of another acci- Reg Green, 86, has made it
dent they noticed that Nicholas had his lifes work to spread the
been shot in the head. He was message of organ donation.
READERS DIGEST  

breathing but unconscious. their story they could spread the mes- donation awareness and have made feel to Nicholas and agreeing to work
Two days later freckle-faced, fair- sage about the importance of organ and distributed over 5,000 copies of a together to increase awareness. Last
haired Nicholas Green was declared donation. As Green explains today, I video about the subject. Green has year an Italian government official
brain dead in a Sicilian hospital, had found my lifes work. flown over one million miles since from Calabria, the Italian region
hooked up to a wall of machines that 1994, speaking and urging people to where Nicholas was shot, wrote the
kept his heart beating and his blood LIKE RIPPLES IN a pond, the Greens have a conversation about organ do- Greens, explaining, Everybody in It-
circulating. It was obvious that Nich- decision to donate Nicholas organs nation. aly, and particularly in Calabria, car-
olas was gone, recalls Green as he ex- spread first across Italy, then Europe No one in the entire world has ries in his heart little Nicholas and the
plains how he and Mag- and eventually much of done more for public awareness in or- noble example of kindness, love and
gie made the decision the world. Organ dona- gan donation than Reg and Maggie civility of your family.
that would forever tions immediately shot Green, says Howard M. Nathan, pres- Letters like that mean a lot to Reg
change their lives, and If the fire up 25 percent in Italy, a ident and CEO of the Gift of Life Do- Green. People often bare their souls
the lives of countless shows any signs country where organs nor Program. in these letters and we answer every
other people. We asked
if we could donate his
of dying had been in chronically
short supply. They rose
The need is staggering. In 2013,
70,000 people in the European Union
one, he explains. And he never turns
down an interview request.
organs. It was a way to down, I will for ten straight years, were waiting for organ donations, It doesnt get any easier, says
alleviate some of the pour gasoline from 6.2 per million of with an average of 12 people dying Green as he launches into a story
horror, and he didnt
need that body any
on it. Its that population in 1993 to
19.7 per million, and
each day. For the terminally ill pa-
tients and their families waiting for a
about how Nicholas loved playing a
game about being a heroic Roman
more. important. have since remained much-needed organ, it is a matter of soldier, just home from the front and
Italians, who had steady (18.5 in 2013), life and death. honored by generals and the public
been following Nicho- saving thousands of Sadly, the need for organs is always alike. We told him hed be immortal-
las shooting in the Italian media lives. The Nicholas Effect, as it has greater than the supply. An Italian ized in poetry and people would
newspapers had labeled it La Nostra been dubbed, was recognized as the transplant surgeon at an event honor- cheer him, explains Green, with just
Vergogna, (Our Shame)were gal- catalyst that changed the thinking of ing Green took him aside and told a slight catch in his throat.
vanized by the Greens generosity. the nation. him, Right now I have two children And, in a way, all that did come
Within hours seven Italians, several of in my hospital who will die if they true, he continues. Nicholass story
whom were close to death, received SINCE 1994 GREEN has returned to It- dont get lungs soon. If only we had captured peoples imagination and lit
Nicholas heart, liver, kidneys, pan- aly more than 50 times, as scores of Nicholas now. Explains Green, Its a spark of love in millions of hearts. If
creas cells and both corneas. They villages and cities have honored Nich- comments like that that keep me go- that isnt immortality, it must surely
quickly recovered. Their decision, olas by naming more than 100 ing. I am simply amazed that our come close.
Green later wrote in his book, The schools, streets and squares after him. story is still moving people two de- More information: www.Nicholas-
Nicholas Effect, took the entire nation Green has also given hundreds of cades later but if the fire shows any Green.org
by storm. Journalists lined up to in- talks to medical and organ donation signs of dying down, I will pour gaso-
terview the Greens, they were feted by groups around the world. line on it. Its that important.
both Italys Prime Minister Silvio Ber- Using money earned from speaking
lusconi and President Oscar Luigi fees and film rights and their savings, THE COUPLE receive a steady stream
Scalfaro. the Greens established the Nicholas of letters, emails and phone calls from
The couple realized that by telling Green Foundation to promote organ strangers telling them how close they

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