Twenty-seven years ago, I was a 35-year-old mother of two young children — Joshua, age five, and Ashley, just eight months old — when my life changed almost overnight. What began as mild illness (virus) quickly progressed to acute liver failure of unknown cause. My body began shutting down, and I required both plasmapheresis and dialysis to stay alive while waiting for a liver donor. Miraculously, a liver became available in time. That transplant saved my life and allowed my kidneys to recover within two weeks.

That extraordinary gift gave me nearly three decades of life — years filled with raising my children, being with my husband, and living in gratitude for every day. Now, twenty-seven years later, my transplanted liver is failing. I am living with cirrhosis, portal hypertension, an enlarged spleen, and severely low platelet counts that increase my risk of bleeding. My kidneys are again under strain from the progression of liver disease.

I am currently listed for a cadaveric transplant at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and for a living donor transplant at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). Despite all of these medical challenges, my spirit remains strong. I have already been given the gift of life once, and I know firsthand the power of one donor’s generosity. My hope is to find another hero who can help me continue my journey — to spend more time with my husband, my children, my grandson and the people I love.