By AMANDA VERZELLO

Jayne Simonds’ first thought after waking up from surgery with a new heart was, “I can breathe.”

“I could feel the heart beating,” Simonds said. “It was so strange to hear the heart go ‘thump, thump, thump.’”

In 2002, Jayne Simonds would still bike 16 miles a day, despite suffering a heart attack six years earlier. Gradually, her energy level diminished and she had to give up biking all together, but she never gave up walking.

“I’m a real active, energetic-type person, so I kept exercising,” Simonds said. “My cardiologist told me, ‘It doesn’t matter how slow you go, don’t give up walking.’”

At one point Simonds had so little energy she couldn’t move for hours after eating. Due to her deteriorating heart, she was placed on the list for a transplant, and after two years of waiting she received the call of a lifetime.

“It wasn’t a case of urgency or anything, it was just a coincidence,” Simonds said. “They had a heart available, and because it was a smaller heart the people up at the top of the list were too large, so it passed down to me.”

Simonds’ transplant wouldn’t have been possible without a willing donor.

Nov. 13-15 has been designated by the Department of Health and Human Services as National Donor Sabbath. The event is an opportunity for religious groups to promote organ donation in an effort to increase the amount of donors in the U.S. It is observed Friday, Saturday and Sunday to include the day of worship for most religions, according to a news release.

“It encourages religious leaders to find some way to let their congregation know what stance they have on organ donation,” said Dixie Madsen, public education coordinator for Intermountain Donor Services.

IDS is focusing on informing all religious groups in Utah of this weekend’s event, Madsen said. The response from churches has been positive in the past.

The LDS church has not taken an official stance on organ donation and leaves the decision up to the individual.

“It seems obvious that organ transplantation does not affect one’s resurrection, since the organ would soon have returned to the basic elements of the earth following death anyway,” Cecil O. Samuelson said in a 1988 Ensign article. “In the meantime, tremendous blessings have come to countless thousands and their families through organ donation and replacement.”

People who need an organ transplant are put on a waiting list according to the immediacy of their need. Once an organ becomes available it will go to the closest, highest-priority individual who fits the criteria for a match, such as similar size and blood type.

“There are people who are waiting for transplants,” Madsen said. “Their only hope is that somebody else has made the decision to say yes to organ donation.”

Simonds said she feels “overwhelming gratitude” for her donor.

 “I’m looking forward to 30 or 40 years of being with my grandchildren that I wasn’t going to have before,” she said.

Utah residents can designate their desire to be an organ donor on their driver’s license application. They can also register at yesutah.org.