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Matchingdonors
Around 1989, my stepmother was suffering from kidney failure. After weeks of thinking about it, I finally offered to donate, but because she and my father were of Mennonite background they refused my offer. They didn't believe it was appropriate to take a kidney from a live person. I felt disappointed, but had already decided that the small inconvenience to me could bring great benefit to someone else. I filed that thought in the back of my mind. My stepmother died in 2000 waiting for a cadaver kidney.
On Thanksgiving of 2005 I was reading the New York Times online. They had an article about a website called matchingdonors.com and provided a link. I clicked on the link and typed in Philadelphia, which the city where I live. It was then that I read about a lady who lives not very far away who was dying. It took me ten minutes to register with the site and shoot her an email. About 10 weeks later, on Valentines Day, we were both in surgery.
It has been a little more difficult than I anticipated, especially on the emotional/mental side, but I don't regret this for a minute. I enjoy helping others as often as possible. I raise money for charity at work, I adopt homeless animals (presently have 2 great tomcats and a 13 year old cocker spaniel that was going to be euthanized the following day at the shelter), I design websites for charitable corporations that otherwise couldn't afford one and am a volunteer member for the board of directors for a school for troubled youth.
Helping others makes me feel good about myself.
