PHOTOS Health gurus strip off to push organ donation

Health trainers in Santa Claus costumes march down streets in Myeongdong district in Jung-gu, Seoul, Friday, to raise awareness of organ donation. Third from right in the front row is Arnold Hong, who spread the nationwide health training fad in the early 2000s. / Korea Times photos by Choi Won-suk

By Ko Dong-hwan

Sixteen South Korean health trainers dropped their dumbbells, got off treadmills and took to busy Seoul streets in Myeongdong Friday to promote an organ donation campaign in a flamboyant, half-naked fashion.

With two days remaining until Christmas, the legion of ripped bodies in Santa Claus costumes marched down Myeongdong Joongang-ro Street in the shopping district on Friday afternoon. Tattoos of various colorful symbols, including the internationally recognized green ribbon, decorated the male and female professional trainers’ bodies.

Among the group was Arnold Hong, the ambassador of the Korean Organ Donor Program campaign and the star health trainer who sparked the nationwide health training boom in the early 2000s. Hong, 46, has been promoting the organ donation and transplant campaign since 2015.

“People asked me why I go iron-pumping and work out like there is no tomorrow,” Hong said. “Well, it’s because I want to present my organs to those in need in the future after I part with this world.”

The donor program’s college ambassador group, SAVE9, and foundation staff joined the parade from Migliore shopping mall to the Myeongdong Theater.

There were 573 organ donors and 248 human tissue donors in the nation last year, an increase from 148 organ donors in 2007. But Korea Organ Donation Agency President Cho Won-hyun said that despite the increase, there is a dire need for more donors for patients waiting for help.