Heather Luchies had long known she would need a kidney transplant. Fortunately, when the time came, a donor was closer than she had anticipated. In fact, she had married him nearly two decades earlier. Now 46, Heather Luchies was diagnosed with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), a condition that causes scar tissue to build up on […]

Katy Rozman has a message for young transplant recipients or young people waiting for a new life-saving organ: you are not alone. “Sometimes all we need is someone to relate to and I don’t always think that’s available – especially for transplant kids,” she said. She should know. Now 31, Rozman has had heart troubles

Murphy Ainsworth was always fit, healthy and active – an energetic athlete who is remembered by family and friends as positive and carefree, with an easy-going smile. “He was really loved by everybody,” said his father, Tom. “He took the best of me and his mother. You really couldn’t have asked for a better kid.

Leah Howell celebrates two birthdays on the same day every year. One is hers, the other is her donated kidney, which she received the day after her birthday more than 16 years ago. She named her ultimate gift “Joey.” “I’m not really sure where the name came from,” she said. “I think I was joking

Stephen May had three words that he lived by: Everybody Love Everybody. He initially took it from the 2008 Will Ferrell movie Semi- Pro, but he fully adopted it into his life at Rockford High School, with the sports teams he played on and in the youth leagues where he served as a referee. “He

Kay Walters just celebrated her 70th birthday. Later this year, she’ll mark an even more significant milestone: her 24th year living with a donated heart. “I can’t believe I’m this old,” she said with a laugh. “No one would ever believe that I was 70, that I would get to it.” That “nobody” initially included

‘It’s been the thing that’s kept me going,’ daughter says Marty Townsend never met a stranger. “He could talk to anybody,” said his daughter, Kimberly. “He was just friendly with everybody. He could take a walk and find two new best friends.” In fact, Marty Townsend, who passed suddenly after a stroke 16 years ago,

Last year marked a new beginning for Keisha Dulin. The 41-year-old Canton resident is continuing to heal after receiving a new heart in 2020 – after four years waiting for a new one. “I am just so grateful every day,” she said. “I stay faithful.” Dulin spent more time in hospitals than most children. She

Robert “Bobby” Ramos was a hard worker with a creative side. “He was always doing something creative,” his father, Robert, said of his son, who died at the age of 23 from a head injury after he fell from a ladder. “If he wasn’t playing his guitar, he was reading, he was writing, he was