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http://smile.amazon.com/ch/46-0949243
Hi, my name is Harold. Next week, I will celebrate 13 years rocking it with one kidney.
The story of how I came to donate my left kidney to a complete stranger is a good one. As a matter of fact, I think it’s one of the best, true-to-life fairy tales as you’ll ever hear. It starts with a “once upon a time” and finishes with a “happily ever after.” But that story will have to be told another time because today, I want to share with you a bit about my life after the “happily ever after.”
Following are some snippets of my life since donating my left kidney (“Lefty”) back in December of 2000.
Two months after my donation, I had the opportunity to meet my recipient, Gennet Belay. You couldn’t find two more opposite people if you tried. And yet, we’re as close as family today as I am with my own flesh and blood. Hey, wait… She IS my own flesh and blood…
Six months after donating, Gennet and I landed on the cover of Parade Magazine. In the following weeks, I received notes and letters from my 5th grade teacher, my Little League baseball coach, three ex-girlfriends, the US Supreme Court, patients on the “waiting list” and from complete strangers from all over the country…
Since donating, I participated in three US National Transplant Games where I’ve regularly competed in the 5k race event. LOVE the games, HATE the running…
Soon after donating, I spoke to my first high school classroom about my story. Since then, I have spoken with more than 10,000 teens around the country, encouraging them to discuss organ donation with their families and to consider signing their drivers license to become an organ donor…
In 2001, I met the first of many other “altruistic kidney donors”, a small but growing number of people with diverse yet similar traits and characteristics. Since then, I’ve met more than two dozen altruistic donors. We discovered some interesting similar characteristic traits: that we were virtually all blood donors growing up, many of us are risk takers (parachute jumpers, bungee jumpers, etc…) and that we all cry when we watch Bambi, Old Yeller and Titanic…
In 2002, I was asked by close friends to fly to Germany to perform their wedding ceremony seeing as how I had signed up decades earlier to be a “legally ordained minister” from an ad in the back of Rolling Stone Magazine…
Before my donation, I had lost three cell phones by leaving them in the back seats of taxicabs. Since donating, I haven’t lost a single one…
Before my donation, I had never even tried Ethiopian food. Since donating, I love it and eat it regularly. Gennet (my recipient) and her husband are Ethiopian and introduced me to the joys of raw meat, spicy veggies and eating with my hands…
Four years ago, I quit my 25-year career in advertising and marketing to accept a job with my best friend from high school – a Hollywood movie director. My wife and I sold our home in Arlington, Virginia and moved to Malibu, California where I now help create media that helps us all recognize how intimately connected we all are…
Since donating, I’ve embraced my life’s guiding theme: Follow the Joy. When choices/decisions present themselves, I tend to choose the path that will lead me to the most joy. Donating my kidney has led me to so many beautiful and joyous experiences. So many it’s hard to imagine…
A lighthearted take on donating blood on the Huffington Post’s “Impact” page.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jen-reeder/give-blood-get-pampered_b_4242831.html
I donated a kidney on behalf of my wife on November 13, 2012 at UCH in Denver. I was 48 at the time. She had a high PRA (99%) so I couldn’t donate to her directly but through a paired exchange we were able to find a donor who could donate to her. I donated to that donor’s partner because he couldn’t donate to her because of mismatched blood types. I’m feeling fine now and we are all doing well (both pairs) so it really was a win-win-win-win scenario!
I hike at least 4 miles every weekend! I’m so happy that this surgery is even possible and I’m proud to have helped someone else as well as having my wife back to full health.
– Roger
On June 4, 2013, I donated a kidney to a total stranger. A few years before I had read a story about an altruistic donation and was intrigued by the possibility of doing so, but I put it off. It was not until I reconnected with a childhood friend and heard the story of how his wife had gotten her life back after having received her second kidney transplant that I knew I had to do it.
I had no major complications from my surgery (laparoscopic) and have completely recovered. In fact, I just completed a rim-to-rim hike of the Grand Canyon.
– Todd Campbell
We LOVE comedian Alonzo Bodden and his hilarious routine about donating a kidney to his older brother earlier this year! Thank you so much, Alonzo, for letting us post it here!
We are grateful to Missy Votel at the Durango Telegraph for a nice profile of Rock 1 Kidney and Jen’s donation story:
http://www.durangotelegraph.com/index.cfm/archives/2013/september-19-2013/rock-1-kidney/
On March 19th we learned that my husband’s kidneys were in end stage renal failure and he was going to need dialysis soon. He had been in various stages of kidney failure since 2006, but for some reason we were in shock. On the way home from the doctor I decided I would donate a kidney if we were a match.
Praise God, we were a match and on July 10, 2013 I donated my kidney to my husband. I was prepared for a lot of pain because I had been warned that frequently the donor has more pain that the recipient. However, I was never in a lot of pain and the morning after surgery I walked from my room on the 3rd floor to my husband’s on the 2nd floor to visit him. The whole experience at Porter Adventist Hospital was positive, the staff was wonderful.
We were able to return home after three weeks in Denver, and the first thing we did was go out in the garden to pick vegetables. It’s only 3 1/2 weeks since surgery and I feel amazing. School for teachers begins today and I will be there.
–Cindy Malay
My name is Lisa Marro. In 1998, I was working at Maverick Recording Company when I found out that a business colleague in New York (I lived in Los Angeles) was in end-stage renal failure.
Four-and-a-half months later after all the tests had been done, at the age of 36, I flew to NY to donate a kidney.
It wasn’t an easy donation. For various reasons the surgery couldn’t be done laparoscopically, but 21 days after the transplant and minus one rib, I was back at work.
Within 6 weeks, I was back working out at the gym and my kidney function today – 14 years later – is the same as it was with 2 kidneys. I’m still active and healthy. One kidney hasn’t hampered my style!
More importantly within 24 hours after surgery, the recipient of my kidney looked amazing. Her color had returned to normal and 14 years later she is still healthy.
Around the year 2000, I read the story in the local newspaper of a woman in my church who donated a kidney. The next two and a half years I prayed about it and during the winter of 2011/2012 I decided it was the right thing to do. May of 2012, at Porter Adventist Hospital in Denver, Colo., I donated my kidney to a stranger in New York. I went in on a Monday night and home on Thursday. Other than some sickness from the anesthesia I had a very positive experience.
I returned to work 5 days later and have had no problems at all. I was 59 when I donated and I can still work circles around my employees. I walk over 3 miles per day, exercise at a local health club and ski during the winter. I not only feel great physically, but knowing that I had a part in making someone’s life richer and fuller is an unbelievable feeling. My kidney was part of chain that extended to 8 other people besides my recipient. Porter Hospital recorded my experience and you can find the interview at their website or on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGzgsT-T4qw).
– Ken Woodbury
