When will this Day be observed? May 7th of each calendar year.
What is National Brain Donation Awareness Day? National Brain Donation Awareness Day is designed to shine a light on the critical need for people to donate their brain to neuroscience research when the time comes. The day itself will have been preceded (in March) by a briefing of the Congressional NeuroScience Caucus, during which the country’s foremost scientists will testify about how important it is for people to become brain donors. And Congress itself is being asked to approve a resolution declaring May 7, 2022 as the first annual National Brain Donation Awareness Day. The designation of this day is the work of The Brain Donor Project, which serves as the intake arm for the NeuroBioBank of the National Institutes of Health. It was created to increase supplies of high quality, well-characterized donated human brain tissue for Neuroscience Research. The Brain Donor Project’s role is to raise awareness of this critical need and to simplify the process of becoming a brain donor by pre-registering at www.braindonorproject.org.
The day will include many elements of public awareness campaigns, all designed to bring attention to how to leave this final gift. It is being requested by The Brain Donor Project, a unique non-profit, operating since 2016 as the intake arm for the brain banks of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), called the NeuroBioBank.
Why is this day being created? The need for donated brain tissue is significant, partly because there is no substitute for it in neurological research and also because advancing the science of brain disease cannot happen soon enough. One in six Americans has a neurological disease or disorder and that number will expand. The Brain Donor Project was inspired by Gene Armentrout, whose family donated his brain when he died in 2015. May 7, 2022 would have been his 86th birthday. This day is created to honor Mr. Armentrout’s legacy.
How should this day be observed? Brain Donation is not included in organ donation, nor is the brain used for neurologic research as part of anatomical body donation. It does not cost the family (when donating to an NIH brain bank), nor is it disfiguring. However, it is optimal to register in advance to become a brain donor. This day should be observed by deciding to become a brain donor, starting the process of registering, and making a plan with family involvement to carry out the donor’s wishes.
Who created this day? This day was created by The Brain Donor Project in 2022.