For over 10 years, I lived with end-stage heart failure and an LVAD keeping me alive. It was not glamorous. It was heavy, exhausting, and something I carried quietly. When I was hospitalized earlier this spring, waiting for a transplant, the days felt endless. Every morning brought news that another heart had been reviewed, tested, declined. Good enough was never good enough. The wait was harrowing, stressful, and full of moments where hope felt thin.
Then one night, everything changed. A PA stepped into my room and said, 'We've got a heart.' Time stopped. All the years of fear, prayer, anger, and exhaustion crashed into that single moment. And suddenly, a perfect match. Twenty years younger. Zero risk. The miracle I had been waiting for was on its way to save my life.
That heart came from a family who was living through the darkest moment of their lives, yet chose generosity. Their grief became my second chance. I wake up every day knowing someone's loved one now beats inside my chest.
And I walk for that reason ... for the families still waiting, for the patients carrying fear in their bones like I did, for the moments where medicine, prayer, and mercy collide to save a life.
If you are able to help me reach the $1,000 mark, it would mean the world. Every dollar goes toward research, CPR training, and the science that kept me alive long enough to hear those four life-changing words.
Thank you for helping me carry this gift forward.
