CODY -- A year after her daughter's death, Patricia Thomas is on a mission, working toward the ambitious goal of reaching out to every resident of Wyoming with an appeal to become an organ donor.

"I'm thinking that I'm doing something for her," Thomas said of her daughter, Kathleen Shannon, who died in September 2008 in Denver after a long illness.

"She always said she wanted to be an organ donor. She had it on her license," Thomas said, recalling when she heard the news of her daughter's death, along with a request from doctors to approve donation of Kathleen's organs.

Bone and skin grafts, heart valves and corneas from Kathleen were sent to separate transplant recipients, including an 85-year-old woman from Nagasaki, Japan, who had lost sight in both eyes, despite an earlier cornea transplant.

"Life was so hard for me," the woman said in a letter to Thomas, relayed through the Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Bank, which handles eye tissue collection, testing and donations for Colorado and most of Wyoming.

"I almost gave up on ever seeing again after my surgery eight years go, but now I can see clearly with my left eye, because of the cornea from America," the woman wrote, not knowing who the donor was. Protocol initially requires anonymity.

"I have no inconveniences in my life now due to my transplant," she said.

"I appreciate the person who donated the cornea to me, their family and everyone who played a role in providing it to me. Thank you very much," the woman wrote.

Inspired by letter

"I was so pleased when I got that letter. I decided I was going to promote organ donation," Thomas said, clutching a red binder in which she keeps a meticulous collection of information and records on Kathleen's case, as well as her own efforts to spread the word about organ donation.

"I just wanted to have something good come out of something so terrible," Thomas said. "She was my best friend, and she was a very caring person."

Kathleen grew up in Powell and Cody, and went to college in Texas, later working for Wells Fargo bank in Billings and Denver.

"She didn't like being away from the mountains. The week after she graduated, we moved her to Denver, and she was there ever since," Thomas said.

"She was really friendly. She was also a clean freak," Thomas said with a laugh. "She had her clothes ordered just a certain way, and nobody could do laundry for her.

"She had to have all her clothes hung in the same direction, or she couldn't sleep. I don't know where she got that from - not me!"

Thomas has sent letters encouraging organ donation to dozens of Wyoming newspapers, every friend in her address book and even her contacts on Facebook, a social networking Web site she says she "is not very good at," but is learning as part of her outreach efforts.

New advances in organ donation are made each year, with researchers in Australia announcing just last week the successful development of a new technique that doubles the time that donor hearts can remain viable.

Donor hearts previously had been usable for only about five hours after removal, but the new combination of drugs in a holding solution has doubled that time, increasing dramatically the distances the organs can travel from donor to recipient.

Though corneas can remain viable for up to two weeks, most are transplanted within just a few days, said Josh Edwards, spokesman for the Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Bank.

Worldwide vision

"We work with surgeons all over the region, across the country and worldwide to schedule surgeries," Edwards said, adding that local recipients receive first priority, while others elsewhere in the United States are next in line.

"We look internationally if we can't find someone in the U.S. Sometimes, corneas go to Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, Greece and Mexico," Edwards said, adding that the eye bank has built relationships with doctors and programs in those countries.

"Unfortunately, in Japan, the selfless act of donating a cornea is not widely known or understood," wrote the woman who received one of Kathleen's corneas.

"I think so many people are waiting for one here, and I am so fortunate to have received sight from good-intentioned people in America who also have the latest medical technology," she wrote.

"For whatever cultural or religious reasons, donation really isn't as mainstream in Japan as it is in the U.S." Edwards said, adding that the needs of American recipients are generally well-served by local donors.

Kathleen's other cornea was transplanted to a 56-year-old man in Littleton, Colo.

Thomas said prospective donors should register with the Wyoming Donor Alliance, and should discuss their wishes with family members.

"If you sign up for it, and something happens to you, your family doesn't have to deal with the decision. They know what your wishes were," she said.

Thomas said she will continue her efforts to recruit organ donors, adding that her daughter would be pleased with her work.

"It has given me something to keep my mind on. I think, under the situation, she would be happy that she was able to help this lady from Japan, as well as maybe some others. I just miss her so much," she said.