Stories of Hope

Our goal at Donate Life Northwest is to educate and encourage people to sign up on their state donor registry. Why? To offer hope to the parents of an 11-year-old boy given six months to live unless he receives a heart transplant. To give grieving families the knowledge their loved one left a selfless legacy. To join in celebration of lives saved and sight and mobility restored because a person's decision to donate was known and honored at their time of death. Because organ, eye and tissue donation is about one human being offering the gift of life to another. Submit Your Story

Jose & Alejandra Cortes

Alejandra’s life changed when her younger brother, Jose, suffered an unexpected heart attack at the age of 35.

Hispanic man wearing a blue button-down shirt and a cream colored cowboy hat in front of a mustard yellow background

Jose Espain

Jose’s family is the most important thing in his life. Thanks to a generous kidney donor, he is still here to share life with them.

Juana Hernandez

Even at her sickest, Juana Hernandez believed in helping her family and community. With her donor's kidney, she has much more energy to continue serving those around her.

Justice Williams

Justice's transplant was a gift of hope. We are lucky that Justice is able to play, grow, learn, and love. Everyone should have that chance.

Justin Boyce

While Justin left behind the memories of an active young man that brought smiles to his classmates and family, it was his legacy of being an organ donor that left the biggest impact.

Katy Portell

At a mere four-years-old, Katy was deemed strong and old enough for open-heart surgery. It was then that she received a pulmonary artery.

Ken Reese

An average kidney transplant lasts between 10-15 years. The kidney Ken received from his mother has lasted 50 years -- still going strong and looking forward to the future.

Caucasian man with curly brown hair, beard, and glasses, wearing a blue button down shirt and smiling

Kevin Kuhl

When Kevin learned that a co-worker was desperately ill and needed a kidney transplant, he took it upon himself to get educated. Then, he saved her life.

Heart recipient Lara, smiling and wearing a black jacket and surrounded by her smiling mother on the left, who is holding a small tan dog, and her smiling father on the right

Lara Guroff

Heart failure slowed Lara down, but a generous heart donor has given her back her life full of love, family, and adventure.

Organ donor, Lily, a teenaged Hispanic girl with long, dark curly hair against a dark background

Lillian Rodriguez

Lillian "Lily" Rodriguez's death was unexpected and devastating, but her family finds some peace in knowing that she blessed others with the gift of life.