Cal Mitchell thought he was just going to get some results back on routine blood work that day in 2006. Instead, he learned that life had changed forever with a diagnosis of polycystic kidney disease (PKD).
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.
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At only 58 years old, with plenty of life to live and love to give, Rick suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke which took his life but allowed him to give the gift of life to others.
Phil, a retiree in Umatilla, is one of our most enthusiastic longtime volunteers. In December 2022, he will celebrate 10 years with the donated heart that saved his life – and almost as long volunteering for DLNW.
Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) and kidney transplants were a fact of life when Mary Romero was growing up. When she was 5, her Grandma had a transplant. Then later, her uncle and her dad had transplants as well.
For Jen, the most important thing has always been helping others. Thanks to two generous kidney donors, she now has the health and strength to devote to it.
