Hello, and welcome to the Get to Life Podcast, where we have conversations about organ tissue and iDonation. You can always find us at the gettolife.org. I'm Lori Steele, and today on the Get to Life is a special episode with a special guest, host, Hey Chuck Stinson. Hey, how are you?
Good. Chuck is with Mora, the Mississippi organ recovery agency. What do you do there, Chuck? I am the Director of Community Services Interlations.
I've been with the agency for about 10 years now and a former broadcaster with Radio Television and excited to be a part of the podcast. Yeah, Chuck. One of our partners when it comes to making life happen. Love it.
Chuck and I have to let you know that we are recording this episode during the coronavirus pandemic and being socially responsible as we always try to be. We are recording remotely. Yeah, we are taking this very seriously here at the agency and within the industry itself. And we're just not doing the recommended six feet.
We're doing the R recommended two states separation. And that's really the best, right? Chuck, that's how it goes. That's exactly right.
So if our sound quality is a little off, we apologize, but you're so grateful that we have this technology so we can continue to share the importance of organ, eye and tissue donation and transplantation. So without further ado, guys, my man Chuck, who will be joining us today? Well, on this episode of the Get to Life, we're talking to the current Mississippi Mary Margaret Hire, who has a personal connection to living donation and has used that as her social awareness platform for years. Ooh, I can't wait.
You ready, Chuck? I'm ready. Let's go. I am too.
Here we go. Mary Margaret, we are so excited to have you join us on the Gifted Life podcast in your journey through donation that I'm well aware of because of the opportunities I've had to speak to you and meet with you over the past few years. But could you share a little bit with our listeners about how donation affected your life and then head into the journey that it took you on as a social awareness campaign? Absolutely.
So growing up, I was joking. The only thing I ever knew about donation and transplant was from watching Phil Magnolias. I loved that movie growing up. And of course, there's a kidney transplant and donation storyline there.
So I loved that. But that was pretty much the extent of what I know about donation until 2010. My grandmother visited her doctor just to have a routine checkup and they ran some blood work that was actually a little more expensive than they had planned to. It was only kind of an accident.
But the result of that blood work was that she received the prognosis of being in kidney failure. And so of course, that meant we had a few options. We had the dialysis option. We had the organ transplant list option.
What we opted for was the third option, which was my mother being tested to be a living donor. And luckily she turned out to be a perfect match, the most perfect match we could imagine. And so in 2012 at Oshner, my mother donated kidney to my grandmother. And this actually was amazing.
And such an example of me, I was 14 at the time. Such an example to me of the truly self-sacrifice and love and the gift that an organ can be to another individual who really needs it. And so that kind of goes to chapter though for my family and our story on organ donation. We had a happy ending.
But it really opened my eyes to the fact that not everybody has that option of a living donor. And not everyone has the same happy ending we did, unfortunately. And so I became passionate at that age when I realized that. And it didn't really manifest into much.
I mean, I became a registered organ donor. And I told my friends that they should as well. But the extent of my true outreach work began when I started competing in the American system. Because if you don't know anything about that system, you probably do know that we have to be selected as a human-packed initiative.
And so I kind of got a deposit of an accident. I was just competing as a favor for somebody who needed one more contestant to be able to post the pageant. I didn't have enough contestants. So I said, sure, I'll do it.
Whatever. Well, I won accidentally. And they said, well, now you have to pick your social impact initiative. And as a result of my family story, I immediately knew that organ-eye and tissue donation would be my social impact initiative.
And so for the past three years, I have practiced promoting what my platform is called, which is to advocate, celebrate, donate, diminishing the donor organ deficit. But I work closely with the Mississippi Organ Recovery Agency. And it's just been such a journey of love for the organ-eye and tissue donation community and how wonderful everybody is. And truly what an example of love that we can express to another individual by simply making the decision to register as an organ-eye and tissue donor.
I love all of that. And I love that you mentioned still Magnolia's. And in the movie, one of my favorites, a mother-daughter duo as well. So I love that you pulled from that.
And then you're living the dream. But I watched some of the interviews with you, which your gorgeous, I love saying your name, Mary Margaret. Mary Margaret. Thank you.
But we can talk you. I love it. I love it. I love it.
But here's what I pulled from your interviews. You always speak about donation. It's joyous. It's sacrifice.
It's important. It's a blessing. And I love that. It's important to team with Moira to learn the other side of it.
Like who does that? Like what pushed you to learn more, to do more, to be more? Well, that was the reality of the situation. Is that I knew my side of the story and I knew that in order to appropriately educate the state of Mississippi about this great cause I needed to educate myself first and learn more about what the process of becoming a deceased donor looks like and all the people that are involved in that.
And then on the other side of the actual transplant, the transplant surgeon who put those organs into somebody who really needs them. I knew that I needed to learn it. So I teamed up with Moora in order to learn simply. And I have certainly had a thorough education.
They have been wonderful and held by hands through this entire experience because I'm with a college for an English degree. Medicine is not something I ever aspire to know very much about. So it has certainly been a learning curve, but everything I learned every single day has just shown me how capable and wonderful and miraculous these medical professionals who facilitate these daily miracles are and truly how incredible the human body is that we can give this gift to another individual who needs it. So let me follow up a little with Mary Margaret and her involvement with us and then I'll have a shameful moment for myself about this.
She's been involved with us for what four or five years now, Mary Margaret, I think somewhere in that area. Going on forward, that's right. Yeah. And she has always been present in events and we've been very lucky in Mississippi for when we've had a Miss Mississippi contestant that has taken this on platform.
They have always been involved for the most part and especially the ones that have won Miss Mississippi, Sarah Beth James reaching back a few years and now Mary Margaret, even Christy Mae before that. But they've always been very involved and very energetic about our mission and about promoting organized tissue donation. And Mary Margaret was always present in events. She was always volunteering.
It wasn't just a photo opportunity for her. She's engaged. She's invested in the mission and we had seen her a few years. And to be honest with you, we didn't hear really from her the last part of last year.
So I wasn't even sure that she was in a pageant this year. And then I get on my phone on the next day and she had won Miss Mississippi. I was actually out of town and I contacted her and I think I apologize to her for not knowing that, but she was still so invested in the mission and still doing things. And it's just a tribute to the person that she is that she didn't reach out to us in terms.
She was doing a lot of things that were promoting the mission. And that's because of what it meant to her heart. And we were so very excited to see her and to be involved with her and to stand on that stage because she is such a passionate advocate of what we do. Well, thank you so much for saying that.
That means a lot to me. It's been truly a blessing to get to be a part of this community and a part of this mission. And I guess just to clarify for the audience, you may not know my specific story. I worked a traveling job for 2018 and into 2019.
And so I was on the road consulting at different universities and I realized the opportunity that I had getting to speak to these college age kids who may not know anything about organized tissue donation. And so I had the opportunity to take my visual impact initiative and organize a new donation on the road, shall we say, and actually got to facilitate presentations in 13 different states over the past year about why college kids should value being an organization. So yeah, I was disconnected from more effort a minute. Just as a result of the job I had, but it was a really cool opportunity to expand my platform nationwide and not just in the state of Mississippi.
I love that here on the podcast. We talk about one person making a difference and you're living it. You're using the crown to save lives. I didn't create that hurt.
You say that interview, which I love. While you're talking to all of these folks, what are some of the myths that you were trying to correct while you're out there in the community, when you're trying to make life happen? Well, I did feel like a misbuster at times for sure. That is something that we all can relate to and definitely encounter out in the general public.
I think the main myth probably is the idea that if you are a registered organiant tissue donor, you happen to get into an accident and an EMT, maybe realizes that you're a donor. People think that those medical professionals are not going to do everything that they can to save your life because the theory as well, if you don't survive your condition, then what eight other people can be saved and countless other people can be healed as a result of the organs and the tissues you can provide. But that's simply not the case. My father is a medical professional actually in position.
He's got the Hippocratic oath and I've had lots of conversations with him about the fact that the medical professional who is facilitating your care is going to do everything in their power, everything they possibly can regardless of your status as an organiant tissue donor to save your life because that is the priority in that moment. And only after they fail to do that will the conversation of recovery and transplant even be a conversation that they have. And so that is definitely something I have tried to ingrain into the mind of everybody up both in to because that is something that is misrepresented a lot in the general media. What coming to mind is Grace and Adami.
So thanks Grace and Adami. So Mary, Margaret, what are some of the things that you've seen as you've gone around to the different different events that donation has been prevalent at that you've been promoting or what are some of the things that really maybe touched your heart, the conversations that you've had out there? Well, the thing that's coming to mind first is a family that I had the opportunity to meet at a pro-river community college football game. They were being honored as special guests of that game because they had just lost their son only a few weeks prior to them appearing.
His name was Boston Como and he was killed in a car accident with his mother in the car. And it was unfortunately a drunk driver that took his life, but he was able to save so many lives and heal so many lives because his parents decided to donate his organs and tissues. And only a few short weeks after that happened, they were already out in the general public promoting donation and sharing their story, which I can't even imagine how challenging that must have been because of the freshness of their loss. But it's just so inspiring to see individuals like the Como family and so many others that I could name that are so passionate about this cause as a result of the effect it's had on their life.
It's really neat to find parallels between me, myself and other people who advocate for the cause and just your stories. And it really deepens my love for donation every time I get to meet somebody new who is out in the world promoting why we should register every time I hear a new story. It just makes me fall so much more deeply in love with the cause that we promote. And I just love your story, Mary Margaret.
I mean, I'm just picturing myself back in college. I've only graduated a couple of years ago, getting a lot of years ago. But you're a beauty, you're well spoken, you're poised, you're passionate. And I'm just thinking about you talking to these young people, our future leaders, right?
So we're trying to create this movement here in Louisiana, and I know Chuck is too. And we're trying to get these young folks talking positively, learning the facts, making educated decisions. So when you're out there, what works do you think? Well, especially when I'm speaking to youth, I don't typically do high school age unless it is seniors.
Sometimes I will do juniors as well because they're approaching that age of being able to legally register themselves. But a lot of times I just kind of had a real talk moment with them. And I am 24 years old, so I'm not that much older than them. And a lot of the times I will give my general speech that I give at Rotary Club meetings and Kwanan Club meetings and all across the state.
I'll give that same standardized speech that I have been protecting over the years. But I also will allow a moment at the end for a real dialogue because they do have a lot of questions in this generation that about two graduate high school, they're so impressive to me because they're so curious about the world. And so a lot of the times my dialogue with them and my question and answer session will be even longer than the speech that I gave. But to me, that just shows how invested they are in learning about the world and learning about things like donation.
And it also shows me the heart that they have for wanting to help their fellow man and really encourages me about the future of our country and our world. Mary Margarit, something kind of unfolded over the last month, too. You've gotten hooked up with the Mississippi transplant games team and depending on what happens with COVID-19 and if those games will still be held in New Jersey later this year, you are planning to go with your mom. I am and my grandfather as well, who's the husband of my grandmother, who received the kidney from my mother.
Unfortunately, she has passed away, totally unrelated cause. She went to heaven with a perfect kidney, that's what we always say. But he is going to be joining us as well. So yes, we are very excited.
I was after we lead the team in opening ceremony, which is such an honor. And to me, it just really empowered me to continue doing this advocacy work. And it just is such an example to me that if you are willing to go out and do the work and hold the banner for something you care about, people will reciprocate and will listen and will help you and will really care about what you have to say. I love that you guys are talking about the transplant games.
I've had the privilege of going for a couple of years and it doesn't matter if we all speak the same language that we're from different areas. We're all there for that one common cause making life happen, celebrating these heroes, celebrating life and it's just so amazing. So Mary, Margaret, that you even want to take that next step and sacrifice the time and be there. You deserve that crown, girl.
Thank you. Well, that's something I've always been passionate about in general, not just with my social impact initiative, but with every woman who compete, we have 41 contestants at Mississippi this year. So a widely vast variety of different causes that are being promoted and something I try and instill in the girl's you're competing for my job is this is not a platform that you care about because you have to have one. It should be something that truly has changed your life and has affected your life and your passionate about and want to advocate for for the rest of your life.
So hopefully I will be a little bit of an example for them and I just truly believe that this will be something I will promote for the rest of my life because it's changed my life. Well, I wanted to ask you about that, Mary, Margaret, too. How does life look in the world of donation for you afterwards? I know you're very passionate about it, but what do you think that you would like to do or what would you like to see done from your standpoint to promote donation?
Well, as previously mentioned, I do not aspire to be a medical professional. My brain just doesn't work that way. I really wish that it did because I mean, in a private world, I could go to medical school and be a dream point surgeon, but that is just not realistic. I know myself and that's not for me.
But I will be beginning law school actually in the fall. And so something that I have looked into that, how it could relate to your donation is potentially practicing some sort of medical law or public policy so that I can be on the forefront of getting these bills written and passed so that it can be easier to receive an organ donation so that there's less red tape when it comes to the waiting list and how long that takes. So anything that I can do in the future to help in my field is definitely something I'm interested in in in addition to continuing to volunteer my time, which is very important to me. Laurie, I'll let you know that we're lobbying for her to become Mississippi again next year.
I don't know if that's going to happen, but we're working on it. Well, if this hosted continues into June and may have to send it, we have to cancel. I'm just saying, when we get to transplant games and she falls in love with Team Louisiana, she may be relocating for law school. All I'm going to say, we're going to have to talk about this.
So Mary, I've never been in the in the pageant world, just watch from TV and all of what these ladies do, but everybody has to come up with their social platform is what it sounds like. But when you talk about donation or you bring that up, is it something that that most are familiar with at that level? Or is it something that you feel you have to explain or they just feel it from the passion that you bring to the table? How is that?
It's kind of a combination. It depends on who the judging panel is. So sometimes they are very well educated. Sometimes they even have a story that is related to their family and donation.
But a lot of the time, there is kind of that moment of having to facilitate and give a little background information and provide some statistics and definitely miss us a little bit. But a lot of the time, in my interview in particular, we are able to get into a really educational and emotional dialogue as well about what my platform is and what can for me and other people and why the judges should be as passionate about it as I am. Mary Margaret, we want people to be able to find you. And if you chair a little bit of your social media accounts, you and I talked about that briefly on the phone, making sure that we didn't share anything you didn't want to share.
But you said your life is public and always will be now after after this stint as Mississippi, didn't you? That's right. That's kind of the gig. It's a lifetime thing.
You're only active for a year, but you're always Mississippi. So you've got a Facebook account, Miss Mississippi right now and Mary Margaret higher. And then your Instagram account, I tried to sign one of the kids there. Margaret higher.
And you're at Mary. I'm higher. So we want people to find that. We've got links to on our donate life Mississippi YouTube page, do some stories that we've done.
There's stories also from the University of Mississippi Medical Center that you can find at umc.edu slash news and some local TV stations have done some coverage of you as well, specifically WLBT and they can go to their website and insert that out as well. It's yeah. And it's Mary Margaret, let me make sure I spell that correctly. Higher, H Y E R just in case.
And also if you're interested in following the rest of my rain, I have social media for my title as well on Instagram and Twitter, both it's at Miss America in that. So she told me something interesting, Laurie. Well, first off, Mary Margaret will be speaking at our we do an annual banquet in July to honor our hospital partners, community partners called the Sparrow Awards and Sparrow is Latin for hope. And Mary Margaret is going to be our featured speaker this year, but her rain as Miss Mississippi will be over and she cannot wear the crown.
The rain is over. Can I have it? I think that it will probably go into shadow box and be displayed in every resident that I have for the rest of my life. Yeah, it'll be a souvenir for sure for the rest of my life.
Probably my most valuable item I'll ever end. Something tells me Laurie's already got a crown somewhere. I was wondering how you kept that up there on that nice head of hair. So Mary Margaret, we talk about in the donation world, a legacy leading a legacy.
How will people remember our heroes, our loved ones, and we help our families tell those stories so the interviewer rain your legacy. What are you wanting people to remember about Miss Mississippi? Mary Margaret higher. I hope that they remember that I treated this title as a job because that's how seriously I take it, whether that's making general appearances that the public book me for or whether that's my official impact initiative and promoting organics, you do nation.
I hope that they remember that I didn't waste a minute and spent every opportunity I could tell people why they should register as organics, you donors and truly being the best representative and servant for Mississippi that I could be because that's been the goal of my year. It's not a princess job. It's a very crazy, busy one and it's a lot of hard work. And so that's how I hope I remember it as a hard worker and somebody who did all the day good with the time that they had.
And Chuck, let me ask you. So we have Miss Mary Margaret who has this platform, which is amazing. And she has all these eyes on her in social media and all of that. So how did that help you and your campaign, your mission over at Mora, having a partner like Mary Margaret who was willing and who wants to and who wants to dedicate that time?
Well, I think the things that she just talked about, the hard work and the willingness is that, you know, there's a lot of demands on, on a Miss Mississippi and there's a lot of demands on any state pageant winner. But what we know is that when we put in the proper request at the proper time, that she's going to be there and she is just so willing to share the message, the passion, the influence that she can have on people. It's been very, very telling to see. We always see these pageant contestants once they reach the plateau of Miss Mississippi and the social impact that they can and do have.
And it really makes it so fulfilling to watch because she is so willing to share the message and promote the message. And she always has been even long before she was Miss Mississippi. This again, Mary Margaret, this was not, this was not a photo opportunity for her. This was a passion.
This was a lifestyle. And we know, good and well, that she's had a great impact on our ability over this last year. And that's again, while we're lobbying to keep her in that role next year. Wow.
Well, we are so grateful that you guys, both of you took the time here on the gift of life to tell this story. Mary Margaret, we hope to check in with you at Transplant Games of America and just learn from you, your experience there. So hope that you'll join us again here on the Gifted Life. I would absolutely like to.
I'll see you there. All right. More to come on the Gifted Life guys. Hang tight.
In every episode of the Gifted Life, we honor a hero. Today's hero comes to us from our Mississippi partner, Mora. Her name is Danielle Bryant. Danielle Bryant, better known to her family as Bebe, was someone that wanted to make everyone laugh and help anyone that she could, according to her mother Cynthia.
She loved people so much that she was studying to be a pediatrician because she loved children more than anything. In July of 2012, Danielle was working in a event with her family as a model and she suddenly collapsed. Danielle had suffered a brain aneurysm. Her mother, Cynthia, knew without a doubt that her daughter would want to help anyone she could through organ and tissue donation.
Ultimately, Danielle was a multiple organ and tissue donor. And her mother to this day says that she is so thankful for the 20 years that she had with Danielle and that she didn't want to be selfish with the gifts her daughter could give to help others. And now we pause and say thank you to Bebe Bryant for the gift of life. And our question and answer segment today, Chuck, this is for you.
If I live in Mississippi, where can I find out information about living donation? You know, Lori, we get that question a lot and it's becoming more prevalent now with people giving this thought to be a living donor. And the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson has a living donation program. You can find them on the web at UMC.edu and just type in healthcare and transplant and you'll find your way around the website to their transplant page.
Or you can call at 601-984-5065. I'll have that one stop shop for information. That's what we're looking for. And we want to hear from you guys.
Email your questions to us at info at thegiftedlife.org. Or you can pick up the phone. We still do that these days. 504-648-3477.
We may even play your audio on this podcast. And that'll do it for this episode of the Gifted Life. Thanks everyone for listening. And we want to remind you that you can register as an organ and tissue and eye donor anytime, registerme.org.
And we want to thank Mary Margaret Heyer, Mrs. Mississippi for being on this podcast. She is a genuine treat to listen to and a genuine treat to work with too. She is very, very passionate about our mission.
The best place to find this podcast is at thegiftedlife.org. Yes. Listen there. Or you can find links to listen on Apple podcasts, Google podcast, Spotify, iHeartRadio.
We're just about everywhere, Chuck. And if you listen on Apple podcast, you could do like I did and leave a five star rating. It really helps others to find this podcast. Chuck, you gave us a five star rating.
Yes, I did. I did. I love that. It's been a pleasure working with you, Lori.
I felt that I needed to do that. Oh, that was awesome. We love learning from others. We love partnering and we have another connection.
Not only do we work together to make life happen, but we have sisters, one who works for Loeba here in Louisiana and one who works for Mora out there in Mississippi. How cool is that? That is really cool. Carrie is over our donor family services.
And she is incredible to work with. She's got a vast history of knowledge in the industry. The only bad part about working with Carrie is that she's right across the hall for me. So I have to be here every day.
And we have Shelley Cavaretta, a family advocate, just so passionate about what she does. But I love that they too collaborate. What's happening in Mississippi? What's happening in Louisiana?
But the bottom line is how can we all help these families even better? So I just love that. I thought that was a nice little caveat. And of course, Chuck, you have been amazing.
And we just appreciate Mora and all you guys do to help us make life happen. It is a partnership in this industry. And there is no better feeling about coming to work every day than doing this job. I agree.
My great. All right, guys. I know a lot of you are probably on your phones because we are recording this during a coronavirus pandemic. But on social, like our page on Facebook, it's the Get to Life podcast.
And you can follow us both on Twitter and Instagram at Get to Life pod. But we ask that you go out and do something you would normally do to help all of us make life happen where one team let's go out and do it. This is a production of LOPA, or the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency. The Get to Life is hosted by Lori Steele, Joey Boudreau and Sarah Blakemore, our executive producer is Kirsten Heins, producer Isha Long Caraway.
Intern is Rebecca Rannam, and we are recorded, engineered and mixed in our Covington, Louisiana studio by Troy Perez.