Speaking from personal experience, forklift distributor Warren Cornil strongly encourages individuals to seriously consider organ donation.

"Everyone ought to be a donor," he says. "It's my opinion that organ donation is the single most magnanimous random act of kindness that one person can do for another."

Cornil, 61, is president of Narrow Aisle Inc, headquartered in Dallas, Texas and chief executive officer of Sunbelt Industrial Trucks, legally Rowan-Cornil Inc, with Texas locations in Dallas and Houston. He has been self-employed in the industry for more than three decades.

Narrow Aisle distributes the Flexi product line through numerous authorised stocking dealers and some non-stocking dealers in the western hemisphere, including all countries in the Americas. "Sunbelt is one of our authorised dealers and also represents Komatsu, TCM and Tailift" forklifts, he notes.

"April is National Donate Life Month in the USA, and this April marks the 20th anniversary of the transplant department at Medical City Dallas Hospital where I received my heart transplant three years ago on April 8," Cornil says. "I owe a debt of gratitude that cannot be repaid, but it's my mission in life to attempt to repay all that I can by promoting awareness."

Cornil notes that 15-20 people die each day in the US while awaiting donated organs. "If enough people are aware and become donors, regardless of age or medical condition, more lives would be saved."

The National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 made it a federal felony for anyone in the US to give or receive anything of value in return for an organ donation. Under contract with the US Health Resources and Services Administration, the private non-profit United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) of Richmond, Virginia manages the nation's organ transplant system and ensures fairness in the distribution of organs.

Registering with UNOS is the best way to ensure connection with the correct agency. A prospective donor in the US can find information on the donatelife website.

Cornil grew up in Arizona and New Mexico and, after college, was a vice president and commercial loan officer for a bank in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He moved to Odessa, Texas in 1979 to work with a group opening a new bank there.

In March 1979, Cornil relocated to Dallas to go into business for himself in the materials handling equipment industry. "We began importing reconditioned Japanese forklifts and selling them wholesale to dealers nationally and retailing them in the Dallas metro area," he recalls. "I signed my first contract to represent Komatsu in north Texas in January of '80 and have represented them ever since, historically being their #1 dealer in unit sales volume. My business partner, Bill Rowan, and I have been partners since '81 (and) equal partners since '87 (when, together, they founded Sunbelt Industrial Trucks).

"In September of '01 we formed Narrow Aisle Inc and purchased the North, Central and South America manufacturing and marketing rights to the Flexi articulating forklift from Narrow Aisle Ltd in [the Great Bridge district of Tipton] England," he says. "We worked with them to move the manufacturing to [Taichung] Taiwan where it is manufactured under contract for us by Tailift Ltd. In late '96, we formed Tailift USA Inc and introduced Tailift to the North American market. Then in '04, we sold the marketing rights back to Tailift."

Cornil was a member of the Industrial Truck Association board during the Tailift years, and Rowan served on the board of the Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association from 2000-2004.

Organ donation "is a cause more important than business", Cornil says. "If it were not for my transplant, I wouldn't be alive now!"

His medical problems began at age 55 in January 2005 - one week after that year's ProMat materials handling exposition - when he experienced his first episode of atrial fibrillation while at his Texas ranch in Hamilton County. He was hospitalised in Clifton, Texas, stabilised and directed to find a cardiologist near his home in Dallas. He went through a successful cardioversion procedure as an outpatient, but atrial fibrillation reoccurred weeks later. Tests indicated Cornil's heart disease would require a transplant eventually.

Cornil's condition worsened beginning in late 2007. In December, three cardioversion procedures were unsuccessful, and he was hospitalised for 60 days over almost four months for several other operations. Serious discussions began about a possible business transition plan that proved ultimately to be unnecessary, but it taught Cornil the importance of planning ahead for any eventuality.

During a telecast of the 2008 NCAA basketball championship game, Cornil learned a transplant was available for him. The 8 April operation in Dallas was successful, but complications three days later stopped his new heart. The surgical team reopened his chest and started the vital organ again.

Cornil's health was restored. He continues to receive post-transplant care.

The grateful recipient says that the donated organs of 26-year-old Jason Edwards positively impacted six lives including his own. Edwards was terminally injured in a motorcycle accident.

"I met my donor's mother, Eileen Edwards, in Missouri on the way home from ProMat in January of '09," Cornil recalls. "It was an incredible experience."

Cornil's message at ProMat 2011 in Chicago last week was almost more about encouraging organ donation than selling forklift trucks.

"Biologically, I was 61 at my last birthday," he notes. "My heart was only 29 on my last birthday so I combine the two ages - 90 - and average them. I say I am only 45."