I had the pleasure of connecting with Tracy Miley, who in 2022, donated a kidney to a friend who lived across the country.
Tracy Miley has lived in Flagler County since 2005. She connected with a girl she knew from her high school days in Iowa, Dawn Fowler. They connected via Facebook and enjoyed catching up and staying connected.
Zoom ahead to 2019, and this is when Dawn shared that she suffered from a rare kidney disease, IGA Nephoropathy. (Read more about the disease here: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/iga-nephropathy/symptoms-causes/syc-20352268)
Dawn told Tracy at this point that she was in kidney failure and awaiting a transplant. She had done the putting herself out there asking for help, being a living donor, etc. Tracy was intrigued to say the least as she thought one must be deceased in order to donate an organ; and she was already listed as an organ donor on her drivers license. Tracy decided that since she was type O+, she should research it further into what it would take to help her friend.
Tracy did her research, preliminary bloodwork and thought about the possibility to donate a kidney before telling Dawn. Once she had thought about a few months, Tracy decided to fill Dawn in on the currently thoughts she was having. Tracy said, “I am open to learning more about donating. I don’t know if this is truly something I can mentally or even physically would be cleared to do but I am willing to explore further.”
Once Tracy spilled the beans to Dawn they began to coordinate more tests, and step by step Tracy says she felt more at peace with the decision.
Now, Dawn lives in Arizona, and Tracy lives in Florida. This posed a problem because Tracy couldn’t just up and take off to Arizona, as Tracy’s mother suffers from dementia. But Tracy was determined to figure it out. However, Dawn had a local person step forward to do the transplant so Tracy took a step back and cheered her friend on.
The local donor however decided to back out right before the surgery, and left Dawn reeling from the loss and disappointment of losing a chance at life. Tracy reached out after a few days and said I am STILL open to helping.
Tracy found out that if they transferred Dawn over to the Mayo Clinic, Tracy could donate a kidney and recover here in Jacksonville, and Mayo Clinic Transplant Center would fly the kidney all the way to Dawn in Arizona.
So on July 28th, 2022, Tracy underwent the surgery to remove a kidney and have it flown to her friend in Arizona.
“I never once doubted that this was not something I needed to do. I wanted to make a profound difference in the life of someone while I am here…not after I die. I believe this is why I naturally was pulled to and am so passionate about helping others get healthy and live their best lives in my health coaching career. I got myself to a healthy relationship with food and nutrition and just felt pulled to share that with others.”
