“Originally, I wanted to donate a kidney to my cousin. It turned out that we were not a match, but we decided to try and go into the paired-donation program. And on Super Bowl Sunday of 2015, my cousin got a call that she had an exact match.
“Afterward, my coordinator called and asked if I was still willing to do it. I told her I needed a little time to think about it — but even then I knew my answer was going to be yes, because my cousin had been blessed with a kidney after waiting for eight years. There was no way I could I go through this process, be approved and then not donate to someone else who needed one.
“It was really about convincing my family. Their thinking — a lot of people’s thinking — was, ‘You don’t know this person — why put yourself through this if you don’t have to?’ So I wanted to make them comfortable and accepting of it, but to me it felt like it was meant to be.
“The surgery was scheduled for October. That day, I remember thinking, ‘I’m finally here, and I’m going to do this.’ I was excited.
“I’m a nurse, and I know I little bit more what to expect than maybe other people do. So the recovery was painful; but it wasn’t a surprise, and it wasn’t unbearable. I met my recipient the day I was discharged, and it turned out he was just one door down from me. In fact, he had seen me right before he went into surgery and turned to a friend who was with him and said, ‘I bet that’s her.’
“If someone else was thinking about donating a kidney, I would tell them they really have to be sure this is something they want to do, but that the few days of pain is worth helping someone else add more years to their life. The recipient of my kidney has a young son, and he wanted time to see him grow up and be there for him. And I know his quality of life has improved.
“Since the surgery, a lot of people ask how I’m doing, because they think your life is going to be different after you donate a kidney. But to me, it’s the same. I really can’t tell I had anything done other than seeing the scars, and they’re small.
“It’s great being part of something historic in terms of the kidney chain, but whether or not I was going to be part of that wouldn’t have influenced my decision to donate. My hope from the beginning was just to be able to help somebody else and serve God in the process.”
Sonya English - 52
“If someone else was thinking about donating a kidney, I would tell them.… that the few days of pain is worth helping someone else add more years to their life."