“About four years ago, I began to notice I was losing a lot of energy. I couldn’t hold food down. I’m a minister of the Gospel, and I kept praying, ‘God, you have to show me what’s going on.’ And he instructed me to go to the hospital.
“I went to the hospital and said, ‘I think I have a stomach virus.’ When the doctor came back after doing some tests, he told me I was in kidney failure. It devastated me. For two or three days, I wouldn’t even do the dialysis, and it got to the point where my calcium had depleted, and I couldn’t control my body. Finally I said, ‘OK, dialyze me.’ By then, I couldn’t even sign the paper without guiding one hand with the other one.
“After that, the doctor told me I could either stay on dialysis or get a transplant. I stayed on dialysis for about four years, and then I had a dream that I had an operation and was able to live life again. I received it with all my heart as a dream from God, and finally I let them put my name on the transplant list. The next day, UAB called me and said they had a kidney for me.
“After the transplant, the woman who gave me her kidney came in. I had my words together that I was going to say to her; but once I saw her, all I could do was cry. I asked her, ‘Is there anything I can do for you?’ She said, ‘All I ask is for you to take this kidney and do the best that you can for what God gave you to do.’
“Finally when I could compose myself, I asked her, ‘What made you do it?’ She said, ‘I was trying to save my twin sister, and we didn’t match. But I was a perfect match for you, and somebody else was a perfect match for my sister.’ She’s a Caucasian lady and I’m black; but at the end of the day, we’re more alike than we are different. It’s powerful. We started talking about the chain, and how many people have gotten kidneys in this process. Then we really started crying. I said, ‘God never ceases to amaze.’
“The transplant was a total success. The difference is overwhelming. I have so much energy now. I went back to the clinic I used to dialyze in, and when they saw me, they were amazed. I told the patients, ‘If you get the chance to get a transplant, you’d better do it. Do it and live.’”