A World Record Kidney: 58 Years and Still Going | EP 41

Denice received her father’s kidney at age 13, decades before modern transplant protocols were common and pediatric dialysis existed. Fifty-eight years later, she is still thriving and using her story to inspire others to be donors.

Denice reflects on a childhood shaped by loss, a diagnosis that changed everything, and a mother who refused to accept no as an answer. She shares the extraordinary circumstances that led to her transplant, paints a vivid portrait of her donor father, and opens up about how grief and gratitude have coexisted throughout her life. With clarity and compassion, Denice also talks about being intersex, reminding us that biology is more complex than simple labels and that acceptance can be life changing.

We explore why her transplant may have lasted so long, including an unusually good match, consistent habits, and decades on azathioprine, along with the medical challenges that came with lifelong immunosuppression. Denice speaks candidly about aging with a transplant, staying active, and continuing to show up fully in the world.

What resonates most is her call to action. Denice invites more healthy people to consider non designated living donation. She describes the halo effect donors often experience, the relief it brings to recipients and families, and the quiet joy that comes from turning courage into connection. Along the way, we honor the legacy of long-term transplant pioneers like Butch Newman and Guinness record holder Joanna Rempel, placing Denice’s journey within a larger story of medical progress and human generosity.

If you have ever wondered whether one decision can ripple outward and change countless lives, this conversation offers a powerful answer. Listen, share with someone who needs hope, and if it moves you, subscribe, rate, and leave a review so more people can find these lifesaving stories.

Links

Ventura County Star Article

UCLA Article

Denice on YouTube

Denice’s 2025 Presentation for the American Society of Transplantation (AST)

About Fraser Syndrome

Donor Diaries Website
Donor Diaries on Facebook
GiftWorks Website
Connect with Laurie Lee

Transcript

A Record-Breaking Kidney Story

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Okay, my transplant was in 1967. I was 13 years old. I am 71. And my kidney is ninety-seven. So everything's seventy-one about me, but my kidney and my knee replacement.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Welcome back to Donor Diaries, a podcast that celebrates the beautiful world of transplant, sharing stories from donors, recipients, and the professionals who make it all possible. Every now and then a story comes along that completely redefines what's possible in transplant. A story that's equal part science, perseverance, and heart. Today's guest is one of those remarkable humans. She's a kidney transplant recipient who, come August, is sure to make the headlines. But we're getting ahead of the media on this one because it's actually this month that she reaches a milestone, unlike anything we've ever seen, is the longest surviving kidney recipient

Meeting Denise And Setting The Stage

SPEAKER_01 1:18

in the United States. And she's not just surviving, she's thriving. Welcome to Donor Diaries, Denise. I am so excited to have you as a guest today. Thank you. I'm excited to be here. To rehash some background, how you and I met, Denise, we were both at the World Transplant Congress, and I think it was my last night there. And you got to speak at it. You were hilarious. You were a huge crowd pleaser, and you just have a remarkable story that is a huge inspiration to those who are seeking a kidney transplant or to those who already have one. So thank you for that. And I'm so glad I got to meet you at the event.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Thank you. Yeah, me too. And I was relaxed at the moment because I had done a bigger speech earlier in the conference, and that was over with. So I kind of let my guard down. Good.

Life Beyond Hospitals And Activism

SPEAKER_01 2:09

I'd love to just have you tell us a little bit about yourself as you exist outside of the kidney world. Sure.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

I now live in Ventura, California, which is my hometown. And I moved back here five years ago with my wife from the East Coast, where we had moved in 2003 because she got a big job as a labor leader. I wanted to move back to California because my mom and my dad were both getting quite elderly. And my wife had a lot of chronic illness. So I was in full-on caregiver mode for most of the last five years. And since then, both my parents have died, and my my partner of 43 years, my wife died on New Year's Eve last year. So that's been kind of who I've been for the last five years. But I'm a retired court reporter. Now I live with my cat Mango and my dog Maya. And my wife and I have always been very political and very politically active against war and racism and, you know, promoting leadership of people of color and stuff like that. So that kind of was a lot of who I've been. But we also were really big into outdoor activities. We did a lot. I I'm holding my normal cussing. Oh, I like to cuss too. Cuss away. It's totally fine. Okay. So we did a crap load of kayaking um on the Russian River and on the Chesapeake Bay and Inland Passage in Canada. And uh we did a lot of hiking. The first year of our relationship, we hiked 500 miles. So yeah, that's, you know, kind of who I am a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Well, first I just want to say I'm I'm so sorry to hear that you lost both parents and a spouse so closely together that had to be excruciating.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

Thank you. It's it's been rough, but I put one foot in front of the other and unfortunately busied myself way beyond my capacity for distractions.

Honoring A Trailblazing Wife

SPEAKER_02 4:21

So I'm trying to pull back a little bit so I can reflect on what just happened in my life in the future.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

So good.

unknown 4:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

I Googled your wife. Uh-huh. Uh she is quite the activist, very well known. Yeah, she was a pioneer in many regards. She was the first out lesbian on the executive council of the AFL-CIO. And we actually met in the union in San Francisco in 1980. But anyway, she used her leadership position to start Pride at Work, which was it's a constituency group of the AFL-CIO focusing on bringing labor to the gay community and LGBTQ issues to the labor community. And she pioneered contract language for same-sex couples and unmarried straight couples to have health benefits and stuff like that. And she really educated the national labor movement about LGBTQ, especially transgender, because it was really not on their agenda at all. She mentored a lot of people and she promoted, helped them, you know, get into leadership positions in labor. And then finally, she started a labor campaign for single-payer health care with some people to get labor on board for single-payer health. So I'll stop there.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Wow. Well, I mean, you guys have led an incredible life of activism together. That's beautiful. We have. So, Denise, you're

Passing The Longevity Torch

SPEAKER_01 6:02

kind of a celebrity in the transplant world. You have an incredibly unique title in that you have the longest lasting kidney transplant in the country.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

I think it's actually in the world, but there's no way to, you know, pen that down because there's no records that are kept on longevity. So I always have to give that little caveat. But I mean, I've followed online people who had had transplants, you know, how long, and then I searched for their obituaries to see if they were still alive and stuff like that. That's a little creepy. I know, but I was I'm weird sometimes. Anyway, I should actually put this on the Guinness Book of World Records and see if they'll do the research.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

I was gonna ask you about Butch. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Butch is the person that I've heard about before I met you. Right. So Butch Newman had 15 months on me. His sister Patty gave him a kidney. He's a rural farmer in Missouri, and he went to University of Colorado, where Dr. Starzel, who is well known in the transplant field, was the surgeon. And his he recently died in March. He was the longevity bearer award or whatever before me. So now I I feel like I took the torch and carrying it into the future. But I did have a little bit of a relationship with him. I talked to him on the phone a few times, and I'd call and his wife would say, Oh, he's out on the tractor. I'll have him call you back, you know, and he was in his 80s, and I just want to honor him.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Yeah, God bless Butch. And for context, how how old of a kidney are we talking

Childhood Loss And Diagnosis

SPEAKER_01 7:56

about here, Denise? For me? Yeah, how long ago was your transplant?

SPEAKER_02 8:00

Okay, my transplant was in 1967. I was 13 years old. I am 71, and my kidney is 97. So everything's 71 about me, but my kidney and my knee replacement.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

So your kidney transplant was what is that 56 years ago? 58. 58. Thanks for doing my math. So 58, Butch was at 58 also.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

So he died four months short of his 59th anniversary.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Wow. So for context, people who get a kidney transplant often need a second one, especially if they get their first one when they're 13, like you were. You know, the the shelf life for a living donor kidney is like 15 to 20 years, uh, which is longer than a deceased donor kidney. But I mean, this is unheard of to talk to somebody who's had the same kidney working in their body for 58 years.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

Pretty remarkable. You know, for years, my blood work and everything, it worked beautifully. And of course, just like everything in a 97-year-old body, it's starting to decline, but I'm still healthy. But, you know, years and years go by, and I would barely think about having a transplant except on the anniversary of our transplant, my dad and I would always celebrate in some way. So I only kind of realized how remarkable it is when I spoke at the worldwide transplant congress in August in San Francisco, because the reception I got from my story was unbelievable. I mean, I could barely go anyplace in the hotel or anything without people wanting to have a selfie taken and give me their card and tell me how amazing my story was and standing ovation and, you know, that kind of stuff. So it was kind of an epiphany for me that I have a mission to carry on my dad's legacy by promoting organ donation, which I have in the past. Now I'm very focused on non-designated or altruistic kidney donation. And I can say more about that when you think it's appropriate.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Yeah, absolutely. Can you take us back to your childhood first, though, and tell us a

A Mother’s Fight For Transplant

SPEAKER_01 10:35

little bit about your family and when you first learned about your kidney disease? Sure.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

Um, so my mom had just turned 20, and 10 days later she had twins. I am an identical twin. And by the time she was 27, she had five kids. And my identical twin was sicker than I was, and she had a mass that was pressing on her bladder. So they did exploratory surgery and found a govinetal blastoma, which is like a bunch of cells in a ball sort of thing. And of course, they took it out, and then they did the same surgery on me because I was was an identical twin. Unfortunately, she died of kidney failure at age seven, and that was a very major traumatic event for my family, of course. I mean, not just because of the loss, but also because my parents were not able to provide the kind of loving support that a seven, five, three, and one-year-old need. That's kind of part of our family history.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

Yeah, your parents were really young when that happened. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

Yeah. Yeah. So in that six years between when she died and when I had my transplant, I guess transplantation developed to a point where I could get a transplant.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

So there was different resources available by the time you got sick that weren't available when your twin. What was her name? Diane. So Denise and Diane. Denise and Diane.

SPEAKER_02 12:19

It wasn't like there were resources available. It was like my mom was a pit bull, and she went out, and both my parents were like, we're not gonna lose another daughter. And she started a chapter of the National Kidney Foundation, which was just starting, and fought with insurance companies and fought with doctors

Intersex Identity And Acceptance

SPEAKER_02 12:40

to get me a transplant. And finally, my uh pediatric doctor, kidney doctor, said, if you will take the answer from this surgeon that is visiting UCLA from Minnesota on the transplant question, I will ask. And he fully expected it to be no, and it was yes. And the other thing that was timely was that immunosuppressive drugs hadn't come out really until about then. And so children that were trans were transplanted in that time never lived beyond a year, and they weren't doing dialysis on anybody but male head of households. So I got really lucky for the timing and everything. And I'm still on the same drug that I took from the very beginning.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

I hadn't considered that. So dialysis was not an option for you. Right. And so your parents were faced with losing one child knowing the other child had the same exact disease and the the solution to keep you alive longer, dialysis wasn't available to a child, which is sad. And then if you were to get a transplant, they didn't have rejection drugs, so it would have been a a death sentence, essentially. Right. Right. Right. Wow, that had to be terrifying.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

Yeah. Well, I was a kid, so you know, I wasn't that worried about. I mean, you know, they did all the work, they did all the research, my dad was tested. It all kind of went on in the background while I was still running around barefoot outside with my friends, you know. And but I do remember one time coming out of the doctor's office and I asked my mom if I was gonna die, and we held each other and cried and stuff. But that's the only emotional memory I have about, you know, I was never really scared.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

So the gonadal blastoma that both you and Diane had, is that how they diagnosed you with Fraser syndrome? Or is that not related?

SPEAKER_02 15:01

Basically,

Portrait Of A Donor Dad

SPEAKER_02 15:02

but it happened like um in my 40s. So for all those years, the most I knew was the sort of the old wives' tale that my mom would say, which was when the egg divided, a little piece broke off and it reattached wrong or something, you know, which of course makes no sense. But at the time, hearing that over and over, it was the reason that we were born sterile, intersex, and had kidney disease. So the understanding of those things together and the root, the chromosomal root of that, was put together by Dr. Frazier, who I had known from UCLA in my earlier years when I was in my 40s.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

Wow. First of all, I want to say it sounds like your you and your mom are cut from the same cloth, that you were pretty lucky to have a mom that was advocating and opening doors to get answers for you.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

Oh, absolutely. My mom, my mom is my was my soulmate, you know. And being intersex, which for your audience, intersex is a variation in sex characteristics that do not fit the typical definitions of male and female. For me, it's that I have male chromosomes, and I my body is female, but only as far as a cervix goes. The rest of it is go now blastoma, which contained male and female sex tissue, like uh reproductive tissue, but I never had a formed uterus or ovaries. And my mom would always say, you know, you're just perfect the way you are. I wouldn't want you any different. I mean, it was never a thing at all from my mom. And yeah, so that kind of goes against Trump's there's only two sexes, because there's really a lot of natural variability in nature. This is true with some fish and some animals and stuff, but also in humans that there's a lot of space and variability between male and female.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Thanks for educating us on that. And you identify as female.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

I do, and I started taking hormones when I was 13. So I developed breasts and stuff, but I don't know what I would be like if I hadn't, which sometimes I wonder.

SPEAKER_01 17:38

Well, I agree with your mom. I think you're perfect.

SPEAKER_02 17:41

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

So it was so great to get to meet you and your sisters in San Francisco, and because they were there cheering you on, they were very funny, also. And one thing you guys all have in common is that your faces just light up when you talk about your dad, who's your donor. Can you tell us a little bit about your dad?

SPEAKER_02 18:02

Well, we also have in common that we all wore the same color, so we were like a little trio. Did you do that on purpose? Yes. Just to the just to the palace hotel. That was the only place. Yeah, my dad was basically an only child,

Inventive Thank-You Traditions

SPEAKER_02 18:20

and his mother was a full-time worker, and he was very independent and self-guided and competent and got a degree in business. He's a very humble man, like you would always say about whenever anybody told him he was a hero or something, he would say, I never realized it was such a big deal. He was generous and, you know, a good dad. He was a hard worker, he was the breadwinner, small business owner. After my parents split up when I was 16, he remarried an artist and therapist. She was both. He'd always loved wood, and he went to a school for old craftsman woodworking and became the most amazing woodworker, making things with beautiful wood, furniture and cupboards and all kinds of stuff with no nails. And he also took up classical guitar and painting and tennis, and he would visit my wife, Nancy, and I with his spouse sometimes and without other times. And we'd go cross-country skiing or kayaking or hiking. And one time when I was in college and I was about 20, I was in Olympia, Washington, and I was into the beat generation at the time. And I read a book called Desolation Angels by Jack Kerouac about his time as a fire lookout in the North Cascades. And so I told my dad I wanted to go up and check that out. So he He drove up from Fentura, California, and picked me up. And he drove up with three of my siblings. And we hiked for like a week or maybe probably more. It was just an amazing experience. And we got up there, and the people, you know, there were fire lookouts up there and all kinds of odes to Jack Kerouac. And uh they actually made us chocolate chip cookies, which is amazing. And we just camped out on this, on top of this mountain. And one thing that's very memorable about that trip was my dad brought a bunch of instant chocolate pudding. And in those days, you could drink out of the stream. So we put chocolate pudding into our water bottle and get and some water and shake it up, and we had chocolate pudding. And another thing I remember about that trip is that I got a big blister on my big toe on one foot from my hiking boots, and my dad gave me his like camp slippers, and I wore those the rest

Why The Kidney Lasted So Long

SPEAKER_02 21:05

of the trip. So that's the kind of guy he was. And then fortunately, a year ago, July, he went into a memory care facility, and you know, we all visited him often, but he died on September 1st. And that's very significant to me because I really wanted him to make it to the 58th anniversary. And Saturday was the 58th anniversary, and he died on Monday. And I went and celebrated with him, even though he was like in a coma. Um because I had always done that. And the year before, I made this big poster, you know, dad's my hero, and picture of the 55 roses I gave him on our 55th anniversary, and the 50 candles I lit on the 50th anniversary. And I presented that in memory care to a lot of people with dementia. So mostly the staff appreciated it. But my dad got to feel honored. So that was that was good.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

So that was your thing was doing stuff on the anniversary and finding outrageous ways to say thank you.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

Yeah. I mean, I always, it's so impossible to thank someone for not only just a kidney, but for your life, you know. I mean, he gave me life twice. And uh a few of the most memorable things I did. One was we had a second home at the Russian River, and there was this Quonset Hut theater in the town of Monte Rio. And I had them put up, thanks for my kidney dad, 30 good years on the marquee. And then I surprised him and walked down and looked at it. So that was one. Another one was Nancy and I lived on Tillman Island before we moved back to California. That's on the Chesapeake Bay, the eastern shore

Health Now And Aging Gracefully

SPEAKER_02 23:06

of Maryland. And there's a park, and they planted five native river birch trees in that park, each one representing a decade of life with his kidney. And then another very ambitious and project I did on the 35th anniversary was I strung beads, like strings of 365 beads. So each bead being one day, and I made 35 strands, and it was like way too much. So I had to get my friends and my sisters to help me do it, but I did it and presented it to them. And I was always wanting to make some kind of art with it, but I never did.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

But well, maybe now that you're retired, you can um figure out what to make out of them. I think you saw it in a newspaper article. Is that right? Were you holding up some in a newspaper article? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I saw the marquee too. This is really looked like you guys are sharing an inside joke in those photos too, like that your dad's kind of laughing at what you came up with this year.

SPEAKER_02 24:14

Right, right. When I had my transplant, there were glass gallon jugs of pink tanged urine on the windowsill, which was making everybody so happy that my kidney was working. And I always wanted to do some art with that as a you know symbol of with your with your pea? Well, no, I just put some pink, you know, uh food coloring and some water, but but you know, the jugs.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

Well, I mean, if you're gonna do it, you might as well be authentic and put your own pea in it. But then it would be yellow and not pink.

SPEAKER_02 24:52

I guess I could put food coloring in my yellow urine.

SPEAKER_01 24:59

Well, I love your creativity, and um, I'm so sorry for the loss of your father. You know, those memories you have of all the the thank yous on the anniversary. Have you thought about what you're gonna do this year with him being gone?

SPEAKER_02 25:14

I've thought about going and putting a plaque where the trees are because I never, you know, people don't know that that's a memorial, right? So I thought about doing that. That's probably what I'll do.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

That's a beautiful

The Case For Altruistic Donation

SPEAKER_01 25:28

idea.

SPEAKER_02 25:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

Why do you think you've been so successful with your transplanted kidney?

SPEAKER_02 25:37

Um well, I think it's the match. It wasn't an excellent match in everything, but I believe that the immune match was really good. And my dad's genes in general, I mean his longevity, even with one kidney. And also, you know, I was never I never like drank a lot. I mean, I did smoke pot and took LSD a couple times, but I never was like into drugs or alcohol very much. So I think that was good. And I never smoked. So I eat somewhat healthy, although, you know, I've had my share of fast food and boreomic flurries. Yeah, so I think that's and I've just been active my whole life and engaged and very, very grateful. So I think all of those together is why, you know, I don't know for sure, but Nancy, my wife, my mom, and my twin all donated their bodies to medical science at UCLA. And I also will be donating my body. So I talked to, they do the service of gratitude, which is really beautiful. And I talked to the head of that program and said, I really want my body to be used for research on longevity. And she said, Well, I review every single donation we get. And so I will, you know, that will go through me and I'll do the best I can to do that. I'm planning to have my sister write on my belly kidney transplant, the date, you know, from dad. I mean, I don't know how long it'll be, but you know, so that it when they go into the lab and start cutting me open, they'll be able to know some of that history.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

The medical students will be like, no, that's impossible.

unknown 27:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

So have doctors ever weighed in to give their opinion on why you're doing so well for so long? None of my like nephrologists or anything really, because they just don't know, really. You mentioned something to me about the anti-rejection drugs you're on, and that you think that maybe had something to do with it too?

SPEAKER_02 27:53

Well, you know, the body wants to reject foreign tissue. And so I did have a rejection event very early on, but they give you more prednisone and you know, and it it resolved, and I never had another one. But I don't think I'd be alive without the immunosuppressive

Closing Thoughts And Shout-Outs

SPEAKER_02 28:13

drug. And some people, when they have had a transplant for a long time, stop taking that. But I never feel like I want to do that because I don't want to take the risk.

SPEAKER_01 28:23

Yeah. Yeah. But the actual type, the actual medication that you're on, does that have something to do? You believe that has something to do with your longevity?

SPEAKER_02 28:33

Yes. And Dr. Danovich from UCLA told me that the drug I'm on, Imuran, is better for kidneys long term. And the new drugs are better for kidneys short term, but not long term, because they prevent early rejection. So I would not want, even if I had another transplant, I wouldn't want to take those any of the new drugs. How's your health today? Um, it's pretty good. I mean, I played pickleball this morning, you know. I I'm active. I've always said that I'm healthier than most of my friends. Like I hardly ever get sick. And I mean, I get tired, but I don't know if it's because I'm getting old or if it's because of my kidney. I don't know. But basically it's really good. I mean, I've had a few things, like I had a bowel obstruction surgery in my 20s because had adhesions from the transplant surgery. I had a whole garden of polyps in my colon, probably from immunosuppression, that they couldn't pick and choose to biopsy. So they took out 60% of my colon. And I've had a fair amount of skin cancer because evidently the emuran does not suppress cancer cells and warts and stuff like that. But it's all just superficial stuff. I'm all in one piece and fine.

SPEAKER_01 30:09

No major setbacks. Just, I mean, that doesn't sound like for a lifetime. No, no. I'm good for now. Good. And your kidney health is okay right now.

SPEAKER_02 30:21

I mean, it's it's been declining over the last few years slowly, but I'm not at the point where they won't even talk to me about a transplant yet. So I'm not at that point. Good. Yeah. My kidney is holding its own. I hope it keeps doing that.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

Yeah. And you mentioned that you're dedicating your resources and your effort into non-designated donors.

SPEAKER_02 30:45

Tell me more about why that's your well, because there are so many people waiting for a kidney and a number of them die every day because they don't get a kidney. And I just think that you don't have to wait for somebody in your family to need a kidney to give a kidney. I mean, obviously, if you have diabetes or high blood pressure or certain things, you would not want to do this. But if you're healthy, you can live a full life on one kidney. I've done it for 58 years, and my dad has done it for 58 years. And most important, you can save somebody's life. And Dr. Danovich always calls it the halo effect. It's just an act of grace that you can give to the universe. And it's acting on altruism and compassion, and you benefit as a donor, also. Amy Doggett, who's a grad student at Washington University Medical School or was, interviewed more than 200 kidney donors throughout the U.S. And they all reported experiencing an increase in life satisfaction from donating. And social science research also shows that donors have great faith in the basic goodness of people and seeing them as precious and worthy beings. So giving a kidney has a ripple effect on people you meet and talk to and your family and your friends. And plus, it's a good story to tell at parties, and you can plant seeds in there in other people's minds about maybe they would be a good donor. So people told me at the conference or the Congress that, you know, you can show all the PowerPoints in the world, and it doesn't have the impact of a story like mine. So that was the epiphany that I had that I need to take my story in honor of my dad and let it have its impact in the world.

SPEAKER_01 32:47

Well, I can't wait to see what you do with that. And it's fascinating to me that we have, you know, we hear about this kidney crisis. I prefer to call it an allocation challenge. Because in any room you're sitting in, there's always people there who would probably be eligible to be a donor. And it's incredible to me when we have a problem and the solution emotionally benefits the giver as well as the recipient, as well as the recipient's friends and family, and everybody who gets to keep their loved one because they now have a transplant. Of course, my heart goes out to donors who don't feel that way. And I know that there's some out there, and I don't want to discount them and not have their stories be heard because their stories should certainly be heard. But in general, it's just so incredible to see the giver benefit the way that they do. I feel that halo effect. You can vouch.

SPEAKER_02 33:41

Yeah, yeah. It's a miracle. You can be part of a miracle.

SPEAKER_01 33:45

Well, any uh parting words for our audience before we part ways today, Denise?

SPEAKER_02 33:51

So spread the word, share the spare, and let it be known that donating a kidney to a stranger might be something that you could consider. And you might even develop a relationship with your recipient and have a wonderful friendship. It's happened before.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

Thank you, Denise. It's been a pleasure having you and congratulations to you and to your father.

SPEAKER_02 34:20

Thank you so much, Lori. Appreciate you having me on your podcast. Okay, bye-bye.

SPEAKER_01 34:26

A special shout out to Butch, his donor, and his family today. And I also want to highlight somebody named Joanna Rempel from Canada. Denise and I did some serious chat GPT and internet detective work to confirm she holds the record, which as far as we can see, she does in the United States. If we're wrong and you know this, please let us know. But we did discover Joanna's incredible story. When she and her identical twin Lana were just 12 years old, Lana donated a kidney to Joanna. And Joanna now holds the Guinness World Record for the longest surviving kidney transplant patient. Both twins are still doing well in Canada, which means that transplant and kidney would be 65 years old today. I'm sure Butch would love that, and I'm happy to report that Denise and Joanna are now Facebook friends. The Season of Donor Diaries is proudly sponsored by Giftworks, an organization dedicated to empowering both organ recipients and living donors through education, advocacy, and support. Giftworks helps patients share their journeys and connect with donors, making sure both donors and recipients feel informed, supported, and valued throughout the entire transplant process. We're honored to partner with a team that's transforming lives one transplant at a time. To learn more, visit yourgiftworks.com. And remember, kindness matters and it's always a choice. This is Lori Lee signing off.