meet the
donor athletes
Our Mission ///
Kidney Donor Athletes promotes the gift of life through living kidney donation among active individuals and athletes by building a community that inspires, supports, and educates people about the experience of kidney donation.
Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Dejan
My name is Dejan Kralj, 46 years old, an Olympian and multiple medalist from the world and European championships in kayak slalom. My best friend Jernej Čopič (friend since 10 years old) received a kidney from his mother in 2008 and unfortunately the time came when he...
Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Ashley
My name is Ashley Zirkle and I donated my right kidney in May 2021. I’d considered donating after coming across an article on my news feed about a woman in need of a kidney transplant due to stage 4 Chronic Kidney Disease. She still had life goals, such as starting a...
Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Doug!
I donated my left kidney in January 2002 to a high school friend, Cheryl; I was 30 years old at the time.Cheryl and I grew up in Massachusetts but had both found our way to central Iowa, where we reconnected and met one another’s spouses. When Cheryl got sick,...
Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Maggie!
My name is Maggie and I am a 45-year-old wife, mother of two, instructor, runner, yogi, and a live organ donor. Maggie on a cold, wet run before donating! I met my friend Phil in 1998, the summer before my senior year of college. At the time, I was his best friend’s...
Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Ashley!
My name is Ashley Ludlow and I donated my left kidney as a non-directed donor starting a paired kidney exchange on December 18, 2013. I had been considering becoming a donor after interning at local dialysis centers as a soon-to-be Registered Dietitian. I saw...
Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Susan!
During times of deep transformation, something happens to you, and then you realize that your life will never be the same. I believe people enter our lives with the potential to change our hearts and help us become better versions of ourselves. When I become more open...
Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Victoria!
My name is Victoria Threadgould and in February 2022, my left kidney went from Austin, TX to New York City, where it was transplanted into someone I didn’t know! My kidney journey started in January 2021 while I was hiking with my husband in a Texas State Park. I said...
Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Mannie!
My name is Mannie Zubia and I am a kidney donor. On February 29th, 2016 I donated my kidney to my mother. That decision came from the state I was seeing my mother in. Both of her kidneys were failing and then came the emergency dialysis. However, her body wasn’t...
Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Helen!
I had never known anyone who had donated an organ and probably had never considered doing this until a friend let it be known that he needed a kidney and was about to start dialysis. I thought, "I can do that!". We had moved out of state many years ago but had kept up...
Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Sibley!
My kidney donation story starts with my grandmother. By the nature of polycystic kidney disease, it must have started with my great-grandfather before that, but he died when she was still a small child, so we don't know how it might have affected him. My grandmother...
Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Tom!
My name is Tom O’Driscoll and I am a double organ donor (kidney/liver). On February 18, 2022, I donated a piece of my liver to a dying young man in a surgery performed at USC – Keck Medical Center in Los Angeles. How did I come to do this? To answer this,...
Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Jesse!
Saving Mom My name is Jesse Soto and I am from Midland Texas, a small town out in West Texas. Home of not much more than a large oil and gas industry. Growing up as a young man I would often see my mother spend many painful days and nights in the hospital for what...
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