Donor Search Success Stories

Aaron got a lot of surprises for his ninth birthday. He went on his first Disney cruise. And he got a special gift from a Florida Keys scuba diver, one he will carry with him for the rest of his life: a new kidney.

A former Fayette County deputy is getting her own Christmas miracle with word that a kidney transplant match has been found.

Retired CBS 17 meteorologist Bill Reh, who has polycystic kidney disease, and his wife of 37 years, Shields Reh, talk about her decision to donate one of her kidneys to him after his kidney function declined to nearly the level requiring dialysis.

“They saved each other,” Amanda McCowen said of what their daughter wrote in a diary. “They’re both heroes. They saved each other.”

Sitting inside his home in early December, Davis reflected on the year that saw him battle kidney disease, undergo dialysis for 18 months, and ultimately receive a life-saving transplant from an anonymous donor.

A man’s generous act to help a friend led to a life-saving discovery of his own. Robb Layne volunteered as a living organ donor to help Doris Pittell, who, at 79 years old, was diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease.

Shelby Vollnogle, who operates Beefy Buckaroo food truck, is donating a kidney to an ailing customer.

When Mark DeVito received his new kidney at SUNY Upstate Medical University in September, the moment marked far more than the end of a long wait.

Lee Underwood, a colon cancer survivor and Type 1 diabetic, revealed to WRAL eight months ago that he was in Stage 5 kidney failure and urgently needed a living donor. Someone answered that call.

Heston Gray was diagnosed with ANCA Vasculitis, an auto-immune disease that was affecting his kidneys. One year later, his wife Holly stepped up and donated her kidney through a paired exchange program boosting Heston’s odds of getting a transplant.