Neighbors in Need: Seeking A Kidney Donation
Written by Jack Bresnahan
Article published in Longmeadow Neighbors (August 2022)
There are many patients across the country waiting to receive an organ transplant. Donors can be both living and deceased. It is an incredible act to consider being an organ donor for someone in need. You can truly save a person’s life, in more ways than one. As a patient with chronic liver disease awaiting a liver transplant, please listen to my story and consider organ donation.
At age 6, I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis and Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC). PSC is an auto-immune disease that causes the gradual scarring of the liver. Friends, music, and family always supported me through the painful cramps and embarrassing diarrhea that marked my childhood.
In 2010, I attended Plymouth State University. In the White Mountains of New Hampshire I found my own confidence and sense of purpose in life. During my four years at school I rock climbed, surfed, skied, paddled, and hiked every day I could. I graduated with a degree in Adventure Education.
My first job out of college, I was leading students on a three-week backpacking trip through the Gila Wilderness, New Mexico. This is when I first experienced symptoms of my liver disease. For the next several years I balanced work and symptoms, until my illness forced me to consider a career change.
After being denied Social Disability Services and other government aid due to my age, I enrolled at Rhode Island College and earned my Masters in the Art of Teaching, Elementary Education. In 2021 while student teaching I was diagnosed with Hepato-Cellular Carcinoma (HCC), or liver cancer.
For the past six years my family and I have been searching for a liver transplant. I cannot thank the friends and families enough, who have come forward as possible organ donors. Unfortunately, we have not yet found a match, though we remain hopeful.
Please consider organ donation, as my story is only one of many. The high demand for organ transplants puts patients and their families in challenging positions financially, socially, physically, and emotionally. My family and friends have supported me through all these difficult years. With your love, we can all enjoy the gift of health and live this life the best we can; to follow our dreams and climb as high as we dare.
Thank you for your time.
Love,
Jack Bresnahan
