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, Jesse!

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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Meet Double Donor, Jody!

Meet Double Donor, Jody!

My name is Jody Becker Wilkey, I am a 58-year-old native of Central Illinois, and I’d like to share my organ donation stories. My first story begins in June 1983, when I was a 20-year-old college student majoring in the Teaching of Spanish at the University of...

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Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Jon!

Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Jon!

The kidney donor part  A few years ago, I heard a story on NPR about kidney donation. It was the first time I heard about “the list”: The enormous list of people, tens of thousands, in desperate need of a kidney, the dozen or so people who die waiting every day, and...

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meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Casey!

meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Casey!

Kidney disease, specifically interstitial nephritis is something my family is all too familiar with.  My grandfather passed away in his 50’s and at the time was told he was too old for dialysis.  In 1995, my uncle received a kidney transplant, after being on...

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Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Thomas!

Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Thomas!

As part of my job, I am fortunate to have a platform to communicate to our entire company. The following is an excerpt from the message I sent on Friday, July 31, 2020 as part of our weekly internal e-newsletter:  I stared across the hall and into my bedroom, not...

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Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Cristina!

Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Cristina!

 My name is Cristina Fontana, and I am a non-directed/altruistic living kidney donor. Donating my kidney to a stranger has been one of the most amazing and rewarding experiences in my entire life. I was born and raised in South America- Caracas, Venezuela. I live...

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Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Maeve!

Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Maeve!

Growing up, I had always had a passion for sports and being active at a young age. I started playing soccer when I was just 3 years old. By 10 years old, I started playing on a travel competitive soccer team. Travel soccer was such an amazing time to bond with...

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Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Jodi!

Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Jodi!

I donated my kidney because I survived a house fire in 2012.  I was in the house, and when I evacuated with my son, I watched my house burn to the ground from the driveway.  After I put my life back together, I felt compelled to give something back to the universe for...

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Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Jennifer!

Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Jennifer!

I first learned of my father’s kidney disease back in 2012. He was pretty casual about it and just said they would monitor his kidneys. As the years progressed his kidney maintained the same until around 2018 when he started noticing more of a decline and the...

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Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Kathleen!

Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Kathleen!

I have often thought kidney donation would be a way I could help in my community. However, I never really thought it through, and when the realization hit that donating involved major surgery, I became aware that I happen to have a deep-seated, unexplainable,...

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Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Whitney!

Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Whitney!

In June of 2015, at the age of 33 and with two young girls (four and two), I donated my left kidney to my childhood friend, Lauren.   Our parents met when we were babies and our families have been close ever since.  Lauren received her first donated kidney...

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Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Courtney!

Meet Kidney Donor Athlete, Courtney!

I know many people can say that running changed their lives, but it changed mine in ways one would never imagine! If I hadn’t taken up running back in 2013, I would never have met Tracy. And if I hadn’t met Tracy, it is not likely that I would be a living kidney donor...

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