BOULDER, Colo. — Decades after attending prom together, a high school pair reconnected through an immense act of kindness.
Elena Hershey went to prom with Dr. Shawn Moyer 35 years ago. The two lost contact over the years but came back together through kidney donation.
"I heard about living kidney donation two summers ago, and just thought I would look into it," said Hershey, who lives in Boulder. "I thought, 'Hey, this is something I can do. I don't have a lot of money to donate to people, but I am very healthy, so maybe this is something I can do.'"
Hershey was already planning to donate her kidney and found out through a mutual friend that Moyer, who was living in Pennsylvania, was on dialysis and needed a kidney. Even though they were states away and had not been in contact, she sent him a message.
"I thought, 'Well, this is great. Would that be something? If we match, that'd be awesome.' And so that's when I reached out to Shawn to ask him about, 'Hey, what do you think about my kidney?'" Hershey said.
Hershey donated through the living kidney donor program at AdventHealth Porter. She was not a direct match for Moyer, but she was able to help bump him on the transplant list.
"It gave me a voucher basically for the first available [kidney], and so that was... an amazing gift," explained Moyer "But what I'd like to people to know is that you can test to see whether you are compatible or a decent donation to somebody who is a friend or loved one, but if you're not a good match, the paired exchange just amplifies your ability to find a match, and I just don't think the average person on the street and even those that are involved in transplantation necessarily know about the paired exchange."
- Hear more from Hershey and Moyer in the video player below
March marks National Kidney Month. Hershey hopes to inspire others and show that you can have an active lifestyle with one kidney.
"I know it's not for everyone, I understand that, but it really doesn't feel like that big of a deal looking back on it now," said Hershey. "So I want people to know [that] your life's not going to change for the worse. Your health is not going to be compromised. You won't lose strength. You won't lose your spirit. If anything, all that stuff gets even better."
According to Dr. Hunter Moore, AdventHealth Porter kidney and living donor transplant surgical director, 2,000 people in Colorado are waiting for a kidney transplant.
"Even though things are getting better, it's still a long wait time. So if you don't have a living donor, your wait time is somewhere between three and five years, and for some older individuals, it can be even five to eight years. So getting a donor is really critical for that older population," Moore said.
If you are interested in learning about donating, there is an application through AdventHealth.
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