It is almost always redundant to say that a person's death is tragic, but the death of mother of two Raquel Clarke Wilson may well have been unnecessary.

Mrs. Wilson, who was 36, had been waiting for a kidney transplant for several years. Had a donor emerged, she might well be alive today.

And no one will know whether there was someone out there who might have become a donor if they had arranged to become a donor in the event of their own deaths.

There are about 30 people in Bermuda waiting for transplants, double the number there were two years ago. There are thousands more in the rest of the world, some of whom could benefit from a donor on the Island.

Donating an organ has become known as "the gift that keeps living" because it does just that.

Bermuda residents have higher obligation than most to be donors, because a higher proportion of the population suffers from conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and related kidney problems.

When a person with so much of her life ahead of her like Mrs. Wilson dies, it is impossible not to ask whether there was someone in the community who may have been able to help.

It is too late now to change that. But it's not too late to help the other people who are praying this Christmas for the greatest gift of all: Life. Don't let Mrs. Raquel Wilson's death be in vain.