Shannon Catalano

Donor Mentor
Living Kidney Donor

Shannon decided the best way to celebrate her 40^th birthday was to give a kidney to a stranger.

Shannon knew at the age of 11 that she would be a kidney donor. That’s when her big brother, Johnny, was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. She learned that the disease could wreck his kidneys, and that’s when the donation seed was planted.

In college, Shannon discovered her passion for helping by interning with the American Red Cross. After college, she became a Civil Servant with the Air Force and worked her way up to the Pentagon. She donated a ponytail of hair each time it grew long enough for a wig; volunteered at a women’s shelter, then an animal shelter; mentored a foster child through Big Sister; rode her bicycle 2,000 miles from Canada to Mexico for charity; and started donating blood every eight weeks. At one blood drive, she joined the bone marrow registry.

Fourteen years after joining the bone marrow registry, Shannon was a match for someone in need! She immediately started the medical screening, then came the message: the patient is no longer available for transplant, and we are releasing you back onto the registry. Shannon was devastated and immediately started looking for a way to fill the whole in her heart left by the cancelled procedure. Her mind wandered to kidney donation, but how could she give away the kidney earmarked for Johnny all those years ago? Ultimately, she concluded that someone’s loved one needed her kidney now, and that her brother might not ever need one. Now, with the National Kidney Registry’s Family Voucher Program, donors don’t have to grapple with what-if scenarios. Their non-directed donation protects up to five family members who are not in imminent need of a kidney transplant.

Shannon was fascinated by the kidney donation process, feeling lucky to get the world’s best physical and a clean bill of health. The only thing that was missing was a donor mentor. She had never met a donor and had so many questions she wanted answered from a donor’s perspective. Now, she gets to be the advocate and educator she wanted on her journey back in 2018.

After donation, Shannon started the Dallas / Fort Worth One Kidney Club and was honored to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro with the Kidney Donor Athletes. She lives in Plano, Texas with her husband and rescue pup. In her free time, she operates the Lone Star Wheelers, a nonprofit that gives adapted bicycle joyrides.