I am both an organ donor AND a recipient, so I can attest to the miracles on both sides of organ donation.

In 2003, my son Nick was born with a brain tumor. He underwent multiple brain surgeries at Primary Children’s and received the very best care. I wanted to pay forward the wonderful care that Nick received from the doctors and nurses at Primary Children’s Medical Center. In 2010, I was able to do that by becoming the 50th Good Samaritan kidney donor in the state of Utah. This amazing program matches willing donors with people waiting for a kidney transplant. I was matched with Mollie Jones, a young mother who had been on dialysis for over 10 years. We were able to meet before the surgery and got to recover in rooms next door to each other during our hospital stay. To know Mollie was to love her and during our time together I absolutely grew to love her. We stayed friends after the transplant and I am so grateful for the incredible opportunity I had to participate in this amazing program. I would absolutely encourage anyone thinking about it to become a living kidney donor – you have a spare to share!

After being an organ donor, I became an organ recipient. In 2011, I was diagnosed with a progressive eye disease and in 2017, I received a donated cornea. I was so happy to be a part of the donation process as a donor and it is equally amazing to be a recipient. I am so grateful someone made a choice that literally gave me my sight back.

As Mary Roach said in her book “Stiff”, organ donation – it’s the only way you can be in two places at once!