Stories of Hope

Name: Lisa Haney  Age: 54  Home: Detroit  Transplant: Heart  Why did you need a transplant and when did it happen?  My heart issues started as…

He graduated this spring with a nursing degree Tommy Schomaker entered the world in 2000 with half a heart. The otherwise-perfect 7-pound baby faced a…

When Cindy Hanback answered the phone and heard her son Alex’s voice, she thought he just had a cold.   “I had missed his original phone…

When 23-year-old Dalton Magwood passed away, his mother Haley was devastated – but she carried a rare and powerful comfort: Dalton had shared his selfless…

Deb Gustafson’s life changed at church one morning when a friend named Bonnie sidled up to her and whispered, “I want to be tested.”  Disease…

Brett Bowman, from Woodhaven, Mich., was born with cystic fibrosis. Growing up he was in and out of C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor….

When Saginaw-area resident Londel Cook was diagnosed with end stage renal failure at a young age, he didn’t understand the severity of his illness.   “I…

Gift of Life Michigan Community Outreach Coordinator Shalonda Griffin’s late husband Greg was the ‘greatest person she has ever met.’  “He put the color in…

When Cewanda Todd was 19-weeks pregnant, she was told her unborn daughter had a heart condition.   “Our doctors told us that she wouldn’t make…

Deacon Lawrence J. Bailey was a kidney transplant recipient, husband, father and a fervent advocate for organ and tissue donation. Thanks to his selfless decision…

Steven Dye seemed perfectly healthy with no symptoms before he was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease.   “I had gone to visit my doctor for my…

Jen Bennett, a mother of three from Ravenna, Mich., was working hard to get healthier for her family in 2022. Ten months before the accident,…

When Michael Love woke up groggy from his lung transplant surgery in 2015, he instinctively felt his nose for the cannula that had delivered life-sustaining…

Kathy Vogelsang lends vision as chair of Gift of Life’s Governing Board  Kathy Vogelsang said goodbye to her daughter, Rebecca, as the bright and funny…

One family’s story of tragedy, skin donation and 26 years of borrowed time Roy Schramm shouldn’t have survived.  With burns over 60% of his body,…