“I donated a kidney because my aunt, Mary Cathy Vandiver, needed it. You always think somebody else is going to do it, somebody else will step up and donate, but I think she ran out of options.
“My parents live near her in Muscle Shoals. I was on vacation this past summer and visiting my mom and we were all just sitting around. My aunt is not one to complain. I guess I didn’t really know how badly she needed a kidney at that time. But she told us what was going on, and it really bummed me out.
“I didn’t want her to know that I wanted to do this for her. I didn’t want her to be disappointed if we weren’t a match. And I didn’t know about the paired donor program at that time. I filled out everything online — at first she didn’t know I was doing it — and I had to ask her for her date of birth and other information. It just kind of escalated from there.
“When I came down and talked to my aunt and saw that she needed the kidney badly, my husband, John, wasn’t with me. I called home and told him what I wanted to do. He said, ‘Well you can see if you’re a match and we can talk.’ And I told him, ‘No. If I’m going to do this, then I’m going to do it.’ He understood completely, and he’s been very supportive.
“My kids, Phalen and Zeke, think this is all pretty cool. My 13-year-old daughter, Phalen, is better than I am on an iPad, and we were filling out a form for transplant while we were at Burger King. And she’s asking me, ‘Mom, can I give a kidney?’ I told her we’d talk about it in a few years!
“I filled out the information and they contacted me to come in and be tested and everything went pretty quickly after that. It was just something I felt like I had to do.
“I think it’s awesome to be a part of this kidney chain. All I cared about at first was my aunt, but it’s really pretty cool to know that there are others out there just like her whose lives are changing, hopefully for the better.
“It’s such a simple way to help somebody, and it really doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to me. I’m happy to be a part of it.”
Linda Hessenberger - 34
"All I cared about at first was my aunt, but it’s really pretty cool to know that there are others out there just like her whose lives are changing, hopefully for the better."