Tales from the Organ Trail

Hello and welcome to the Gifted Life Podcast where we have conversations about organ tissue and ideonation and transplantation. You can always find us at thegiftedlife.org. I'm Rasty Hill. I'm Joey Boudreau.

I'm Sarah Blake-Marke coming up on the show today. Yeah, Lori, they are back. They rode bicycles across country to promote donation and now they're here to tell us about it all. And we're going to talk about how if you're pessimistic, you could have less motivation.

All that and more right here guys, thegiftedlife.org. Stay tuned. They are back. Right guys?

Yeah. We have big smiles on our faces. You guys brought so much joy to the podcast last time you were on episode 160. You guys want to check it out.

Hey, Smith. How you doing darling? Good. Now last time we chatted, you were waiting on a kidney.

Has your status changed? Yes it has. It's changed dramatically. I got my new kidney and life is grand.

Yeah. Life is grand. I know you were out playing at a golf tournament and just enjoy wherever you go. So we're so excited.

Also in the line we have Mark and Lynn Scott. How are you guys? We're great. We got it.

Yeah. So this couple, if you guys remember we were talking about just good humans that are out there found out he needed a kidney and he started on a search. He started researching and he stuck to his word which is pretty awesome. He got on what's called the voucher list and he donated a kidney to a complete stranger.

So Mark, how are you feeling? I've been great. It's like nothing happened to be honest with you. I really don't even think about it.

I love it. And so last time we chatted there was a bike ride that was coming up because you guys wanted to talk about the voucher program. Let folks know about it and then just let folks know about donation in general. But it was a big undertaking.

I know Mark and Lynn, you guys were on the road for what a month. You had some amazing friends who helped you to kind of walk us through the thinking to get on the road and then the journey itself because you went from your home in Wisconsin and you came down to join us with Open Arms. He was waiting for you in Nackadish, Louisiana. Yeah, well, I guess it started with meeting you and then he was registered at a transplant facility in the street court.

And when I started talking to them originally about donating a kidney for you, I realized I'd have to be going down to the street court a number of times. So in that thought I decided to I do a lot of bicycle riding, a lot of mountain biking specifically, but I also do a lot of gravel riding and long distance riding. So long story short, I was thinking about doing a ride on one of our trips on the street court, probably Mississippi River. I turned into an awareness ride when Lynn and I learned so much about the dire energy need for living donors and just these donors.

But since I was a living donor, we wanted to try to spread the word as much as possible on this bike ride on the way down to to meet you. As you said, I learned about the voucher program to the National Kidney Registry and that allowed me to do everything up in Madison, Wisconsin, instead of having to go to street court, which was fantastic from my perspective. And he was able to get a voucher from me and get a kidney on his timetable on the schedule, which is important. But I think one of the things that really stuck out in my mind was the voucher program allowed for my kidney to go to the best fit at the time I was on the registry and for you to find a kidney that was the best fit for him when he was ready.

And I think that's very critical to the whole process to avoid kidney rejection. So we did the ride. I actually rode 17 out of 22 days. We had close to 35 different separate media events along the way, TV, newspaper, some radio.

We had a great time with it. We had fun. We had friends along the way that rode with me. Lynn, of course, as my support vehicle was around all the time helping us out.

We had friends from Wisconsin, from high school, actually, that helped us out by falling along and they're RVing. We used that primarily as our lodging. So it was a real kind of a community event. And of course, when we got down to Louisiana and got close to you, Lori, you were a fantastic help in helping us down at Natchitish for the party at Kane River, MCing the program, all that.

We can't thank you enough for that. My favorite, favorite shot, we had our Lopocru who had to work together to capture it. But Hugh, with his arms spread out, huge smile on his face. And here comes Mark by sickling in with a smile as well.

Like, oh man, I'm at the end of this ride. But it brought me such a joy. Like I was smiling. My face was hurting.

But I could feel that moment in that picture. And it was just amazing. Hugh, what was going through your mind? Just like I said in our interview on New Jersey today at that moment, I knew that at this point it was real and that it had happened and it was going to be a forever deal.

And I was so overjoyed. I was so glad to see Mark again, just simply because without him, you know, I would still be on dialysis, I'm sure, and still be waiting for a kid. And so like I said before, he was definitely my God, singing. And I have to say, Mark and Lynn, you guys are just a neat couple because my husband and I on the road, we're like a month.

But so kind and courteous to folks who would, you know, meet you guys along the way. There was a lot of planning that had to go into it because you wouldn't have stopped to like at hospitals to do media events. And then you had to accommodate all these other people that were coming that may have wrote a little bit slower, but wanted to be part of the journey. And you guys were so gracious to allow everyone to feel like they were part of this history making event.

So Lynn, give us a little bit about your thoughts on the ride. And then Mark, I kind of want you to go through and just get some shout outs to those folks who like really helped you along the way. I think one of the most amazing things to me along the route was we ran into people everywhere we went literally who had some personal connection to needing a kidney, having a family member or a close friend that needed a kidney or had kidney disease or had received a kidney or donated a kidney. It was everything from the young woman behind the counter in a shop to high school girls who were the people when you come into a restaurant and they sign up for a table and whatever to a Louisiana State trooper who had a bridge closed off the day before we got to Nagatish.

And that was where I was going to be meeting the two riders for the end point for that day. And so I needed to be sitting there for a little bit. So I walked up the road to where the trooper was in his vehicle to let him know why I was going to be sitting there for a while instead of turning around and driving away like all the other vehicles. And his sister needs to get me.

So that was the most amazing part to me. It's such a common factor for so many people and yet it's like the whole thing is sort of underground. People don't know what options are out there. People don't know the resources that are out there.

And for being as prevalent as it seems to be the whole kidney disease, kidney donation environment is like a greatly hidden secret. So Lynn, this is actually for you and Mark or either of you guys. So obviously I wasn't there. I would have loved to have been there to receive you guys at the end.

You guys are spreading awareness throughout your journey down the Mississippi like you mentioned. And Mark talked about the voucher program and what it was about. So can you guys tell the listeners out there? Why did you guys have to go the voucher program and then a little bit more of an insight so that others can maybe, if they're interested in donating, but they don't have that perfect match in mind how they can be part of that.

Yes, well I was told ignorant about the voucher system. I didn't know anything about it. The only option I thought that he and I had was that I would get evaluated somehow and get tested. And I would be a match for him or I wouldn't be a match.

And that's all I knew and that's I think what most of the population thinks. The fact that he was a stranger might be interesting for people too because you can donate to a stranger, not just a family member. So for me it was just, I was quite a ways into the process actually before I was told by an Ed Brooks who was led to me by the National kidney registry that I did not have to be a match to you. And in fact I didn't even have to be a close match.

I couldn't even have to go to you. It could go to the best match on the registry after my evaluation. And it made so much sense to me to be perfectly honest because I was having a hard time comprehending why am I driving through Madison, Wisconsin, which is one of the best created transplant facility in the United States to go 1500 miles to a place in the tree port. I just didn't think in this day and age that was should be necessary.

And I was right. I didn't know I was right, but that was confirmed by getting involved with the within JR. So once I learned about the voucher program that you don't have to be a match. You don't even have to know the person.

You don't have to live by him. You don't have to really a lot of people are using the voucher program just for altruistic donations. They just want to donate to kidney and have nobody in mind. They just want to do it for the good of mankind.

So the voucher program allowed me and allows everybody to a lot more flexibility. And that means a lot if for my sake it was meaning going to Madison versus going to the tree port. But again, I want to stress that it also allows for the best match and they're just in the last year they've gotten much better at matching kidneys to a lower level and a human body. They're talking about a kidney for life now and you might have actually gotten that program where they can match up now so accurately.

So I think it's a fantastic if anybody wants to donate a kidney for any purpose, but anybody listening to this take heed that don't get hung up on donating to a specific person at a specific time at a specific place that can all be magnified to the voucher program. But none of those things really are critical. It makes it so much easier for the donor and recipient in the long run because again, it's the best match. So Hugh, you are feeling the best you've ever felt?

I feel better than I felt in 10 years. And so you're out, you're playing golf, you're living life. I am actually doing all of those things. I actually I went and had a doctor's appointment yesterday.

I got another great report. Yay. I could get a level at 1.4 which people know the day that I went in for surgery. It was at 14.

And you know now all I have are these scars, but you know they're they're gradually healing and everything. Right now I couldn't ask for anything better. And you know the one thing that I do want to throw in the fact that when I met Mark and Lynn, they were two complete strangers. But now not only are they dear friends of ours, they are part of our family and always will be.

And they are the most amazing people that I've ever come in contact with. They're absolutely awesome people. And I absolutely love them to death. Mark and Lynn, you feel the same?

Yes. You guys are a great person to find. Just as a friendship, let alone the connection with the you know that we made. Here on the podcast guys we say, you know, just takes one person like just be a good human, show some kindness.

And you guys ran across so many of those people in all of these communities as you bicycle down from Wisconsin to Louisiana. People who helped you in some way shape or form. And we like it because here like in this room we get texts from our friends like, Hey, you see this guy was bicycling like he said, he gave a kidney. And then this guy in Louisiana.

And so we're like really interesting. But we love you guys get people who don't normally talk about donation don't work in the donation world. When they start talking about it, man, we know you are really making a difference, which was pretty cool. So talk about some of those folks that you came across on your on your journey that you just have to give a shout out to because of the help that they gave the support.

Well, one of the things I wanted to do on this ride was to open it up for anybody that wanted to join me for any reason. And you know, I guess my initial intent intent was to open it up for people that might be considering becoming donors. And you know, in a roundabout way, give them an opportunity to talk to somebody that that was a donor or is a donor and also demonstrating that, you know, the whole purpose of the ride was to demonstrate that you could go back to your former lifestyle after donation, even if that's, you know, riding bikes 17 days out of 22 for 1500 miles. And you know, I had a lot of my friends, personal friends with the biking community that I've known for 10, 15, 20 years joining me on the ride just to help support me.

I had a look at the friend Greg Hack. I saw him hack. But anyway, he wrote it for four days. A friend of mine from Minneapolis gave prom and road with me for four days.

A guy that I just met through NKDO, a donor to donor. He flew out from New York, never had been on a gravel bike before. A bar gravel bike, rode with us for three days and flew back to New York. He's also a living donor, but he just wanted to support the effort.

A friend of mine that had lived in Madison, Greg Bean, and I was in St. Louis. He'd go with me for a couple of days out of St. Louis.

Randy Tornquist from Central Illinois that I've known for maybe 15 years through mountain biking. He joined me in Illinois, rode for three, four days down to Memphis. My brother Gary came out from Oregon actually, flew out, rode with me for the last five days from basically Memphis back into Nkadish. Yeah, and we just had friends join us along the route that, you know, we're in the area that knew we were there, spent some time with us in the evening or whatever.

So it was really a multi-dimensional ride in a lot of ways. I was always kind of focused on the main thing. I wanted to make darn sure I was able to get to that parking lot to meet you. And I was trying to be very focused with that, but also, you know, one of the big highlights was for us was to meet the editor of the Gina newspaper, only what, 70 miles from the end of the ride.

He reached out from a press release that we put out for local media. His son is looking for a kidney. We met with him for dinner one night and invited us to the house for breakfast the next morning. We got to listen to their story and working with them to try to find his son a kidney right now actually.

And that's one thing I changed for the next ride. We have another ride coming up in September. And when we're ready to talk about that, I can, you know, talk about that too. But it just came together real nicely.

And we just kept it kind of spontaneous for that reason. I don't want to have a real, obviously we had a schedule miles per day, but my great friend from childhood, Mark Brunner's got all my press for me or most of it. He was great. He was sending all press releases.

Yeah, he did an unbelievable job. All front is home, South of Cleveland. He did it all remote contacting media. He was sending out dozens of press releases every day.

Yeah, that's how we kept track of you guys. That and the working trail. We love the updates. Lynn, I assume that was mostly you.

I don't know. But I loved the personal touches, although it was on the bike with you. I was there in spirit and in heart. And just following you day for it.

And you guys were getting closer and closer and closer and then such an incredible reunion in NACADISH, which was amazing. And then he got to meet all of your friends because they threw a huge party at the brewery where it all began. Yes, that was a pretty amazing unit. So, you know, it's just like I told Mark, you know, whenever we were standing out there and he was, you know, then we're putting up the banner and everything.

And I looked at him and almost out of here in my eye and I said, you know, that it kind of brings back old memories. And it's hard to believe that 18 months ago, you and I met right here. And this is where it all began. And now here we all again, and it's going to continue.

So it was an amazing deal. You know, I guess the big thing for me is the fact that, as far as I think I said this before, you know, nothing never been named after me as far as I know. But we actually now have a kidney awareness day in NACADISH on 21st. It's named Mark and I.

And, you know, the mayor gave us the proclamation and everything. And I thought that was absolutely amazing in itself. And, you know, I'd like to add to what Mark said earlier, is, Laurie, I don't believe that we could have done this without you. And we thank you so much for everything that you've done.

And I just also want to let you know the guys at my golf tournament, even though I played like crap that day, they really loved the bracelet that you sent with me and I gave them out to all the guys and explained to them what they were for and what they were about. And, you know, everybody, whenever I showed up there, of course, that was my second turn, but back on the amateur tour that I play on. And they were just so amazed that I was even back, you know, playing golf that quick. Right.

But, you know, August is the 18th, which is just a couple of weeks away. Will be my six month anniversary. And, you know, I'm actually here in Baton Rouge right now, visiting with my brother and my sister, and all, and my niece and dad for you. And we're just enjoying life.

And we're trying to hope that one of these days will cooperate with us and we're going to get out on the golf course and showcase our talents. And that's a big time to stuff. Oh, such big personalities. The, I was able to go to the huge party in Natchish, which was incredible.

And one thing I kept thinking was, you know, he received the gift of life, you know, and from Mark, but it really impacts not only Hugh's family, but the whole community. I don't know if you felt that Mark and Lynn when you were there, but you're like, oh, I'm just going to do this for this for this guy and help him out. Good, good thing to do. But the impact, the ripple effect, as we say here at LOPA, was incredible.

Yes. I mean, I kind of got a feel for that early on when Hugh and I had met a course and then we were on the phone quite a bit, those first few weeks. And then at one point in time, Hugh's mom got on the phone pan and she was talking to me. And it really, it took it to a totally different level because I could just, as a parent, I could put myself in her place if one of our sons was ever in need of a kidney like that.

So I put a totally different twist on it in a sense. So yeah, it's such a ripple effect. It's so it affects so many lives and so many ways that it's even hard to comprehend. Yeah.

And Lynn, last time we spoke with you, you wanted to donate a kidney as well. Do you have an update for us? I'm still on that journey. My platelet level had dropped between my full day evaluation in October and my schedule surgery date in March, which is an after effect of COVID for some people.

Generally, it comes back on its own. And so I'm having monthly blood draws to watch the platelet count. And when it gets up a bit higher than it has been, then I should be a go for my donation surgery. Great.

What a family. I know, man. I just have one before we go. I have one more question for Hugh.

You know, I know that Mark had mentioned how great he felt immediately, basically. It didn't hardly have any impact on him. I'm wondering, Hugh, are you getting lonesome for that ex-girlfriend? You married Hugh for ex-wife for so long?

And I assume if you're playing golf, you must be doing great, right? Honestly, I can tell you ever since I got my poured out, I don't miss her at all. The first two or three nights, I would catch myself. I guess the way that I sleep, it was a possibility that I could roll over on my two.

And kind of crimp the hose. And if that ever happened, of course, you know, my machine would start beefing. And something was crimped. Or, you know, she would say, you know, you need to reposition yourself or something.

I mean, she she was pretty adamant. So first two or three nights, I can honestly remember, I would catch myself, you know, reaching down to readjust my two. Then, you know, I couldn't find it. But I said, well, it's not there anymore.

She gone. You know, she, you know, she goes. I think one of the greatest days of my life is when I packed up that machine and took it back to Shreveport and turned it back in. And of course, I got to see my nurses there and they were all, you know, just ecstatic at how well I looked and how I was acting and, you know, how I felt and my, they said my color had definitely changed.

You know, they said there was just a different sense about me. And honestly, I guess, you know, I didn't realize at the time how bad all that was because really and truly I never felt, you know, sick or we. Or what not. But yet now that I've gotten this new kidney, I've got so much energy.

I don't know what to do with myself. I just need to stay on. Of course, I was never wanted to be still anyway. But, you know, now it's always I get up in the morning.

I drink my coffee and I, soon as I take my medicine at eight o'clock, I'm thinking, OK, what can I do today? What kind of trouble can I get into? That sounds like you. But maybe you need me trouble.

There's not hard to decide at all. If I can't find it, but little find. I love it. And so go ahead.

I'm sorry. Go ahead. It's OK. You know, I just say in that, you know, even though everything has transpired and taking place, you know, as far as being out on the guy for some stuff, you know, I actually thought the first couple of times that I went and played, you know, the heat might affect me somewhat.

But, you know, so far, everything is going well. You know, I mean, I drink plenty of fluids and stuff and they care myself and everything. And so far, everything is great. I love it.

And Mark and Lynn, I assume after 30 days on the road together, you still like each other because you're going to do it again. Yeah, it wasn't more than 10 days or two weeks. And I got back to Wisconsin after Louisiana. We were starting to put together the Oregon Trail 2.0, which is originally, I was thinking about it pretty early in the process because my kidney went to New York.

So I thought, well, I get done with Louisiana. I like to ride bikes. So I'm always looking for some excuses on the right to New York. Well, that we're still going to do the ride, but we're going to do it backwards.

We're going to be starting at Martha's Vineyard on September 19 and make our way back to Plover, Wisconsin, where I live. It's going to be almost 1,700 miles. So a little bit further than Louisiana. So anybody that wants to follow along, we're going to do it a little bit differently.

We're going to try and stay with people along the way. We couldn't do that to go to Louisiana because of COVID. But now with restrictions and the vaccine, you know, more open. We're trying to stay with people in the transplant community that want to host Lynn and I instead of having on RV or use hotels.

Another big difference is that I'm going to try and try to contact people along the route that need to kidney. And I'm going to have to do one person, a new person every day that's going to be meeting with me when I meet with media. I'm going to try and get that person's story out. And so we're going to try and do that.

But we're not where we might end up in New York City or some large city where we have 20, 30 people there. That all need a kidney and then we'll do a name out of that, you know, out of the hat kind of thing. So we're trying to do that to help the people specifically. I know I knew going Louisiana that I was thinking about it, that this would be a great tool to get that story out.

But also it just again, show the public that what the need is get the media more involved. And so that's going to be a pretty good twist to it. And then when we get back to Wisconsin, we're going to have a little party again because it works so well the first time on October 30th. We're going to have a little get together in our little hometown and the little Wisconsin.

Oh, I love it. I love it. Now I follow you guys. Well, when I'm bothering you by text, the Oregon Trail Facebook.

And so is that where folks should go or what do you guys recommend to kind of keep up support you guys spread the word? Well, yes, the Oregon Trail Facebook page and we're going to try and also keep my website up every day as well. We were pretty conscious the first ride to try to keep the message clear that it was not about the ride. And that's in a sense why we didn't do as many updates as we did, which was a mistake, I think.

So this ride, we're going to try and, you know, highlight the ride as well as as the mission equally. So the Oregon Trail Facebook page and the website is we're going to change the name of it, but it'll still go to the same site. Is this going to be called the Oregon Trail dot org? Okay.

It's going to be the new website address. So it's real simple. The Oregon Trail dot org will take us. We'll take anybody to the new that new link will take into the same website.

Well, amazing. And thank you for planning yet another ride to spread donation that just helps all of us across the country when it comes to helping to make life happen. Lynn, keep us up to date on your progress and how that goes and you, my man, keep living life. Honey, believe me.

With this new opportunity, I'm going to live it to the fullest. And I think I have, I think I've already started. So there's no sense in turning back now. Full steam ahead.

I love it. You guys are like part of the family. Please keep in touch and we hope to have you back here on the gift of life. It's about that time guys taking a moment for mental health.

Yep. Negative Nancy here's going to talk about pessimism and motivation. Ooh. You got more Sarah.

So I'm going to talk about the connection between pessimism and motivation. So essentially there's some recent literature that I was reading up on about how people who tend to be a little bit more pessimistic in their views and the way they think have lower levels of motivation. Wow. I can see that.

Yeah. I mean, immediately I think of three or four people who are very pessimistic all the time and it's I can't say. I want to be you from your intro, but that's just me. So essentially what they found was that people who have pessimistic thought tendencies, they tend to view the rewards as less important than how to get to a reward.

So essentially, you and I could say it's like a hot day outside and we see a lemonade stand and it's a mile away. Our car doesn't work. We will weigh those risks and rewards, right? Okay.

So it might be a long walk, but at the end I get this really great glass of lemonade. A pessimist will think, no, it's a long walk. I'm not doing it. Lemonade's probably not going to be that great.

Anyways, it's probably going to be watered down. All that stuff. So they won't take the walk. It's so funny because I can see it.

I can hear those conversations happen. You know, except we we have like a bar at the end and a beer. Well, it's a bad reward. It's hot anyway.

Yeah, exactly. Well, I think that's the point regardless of what the reward is, they a pessimist will tend to turn that reward as less than so they try less hard than maybe an optimist or a realist would. So I guess really what I want to kind of say from this is if you're if that's what you're doing, if you're looking at how how to get somewhere, how to get to the next step. And what you end up doing is minimizing that step.

You're never going to get there. You're going to take less risks. You're going and risks aren't a bad thing. They're a good thing.

You're going to challenge yourself less and try less and eventually it'll turn into having motivation for not much. And so that the challenge though is so we've had these conversations and I've had conversations with, you know, a couple of people in particular, but they don't view themselves as pessimistic. They view view themselves. I've never heard of a pessimist view themselves as a pessimist.

It's always I'm a realist. Like you're the one that's just an eternal optimist. When I kind of think I'm more the realist and maybe a little more on the optimistic side, but still in that paradigm of the whole thing. I think how to recognize it is again, it's, did you, was your initial reaction to I want this thing?

You want it? And then did you talk yourself down from wanting it and say, oh, it's just not realistic when your initial instinct and reaction was I could do it. I see a lot more on social media. I worry about some of my friends, some of them, you know, and so, so we started actually a little like running club when the kids have practiced and they've like come and walk with like, I feel like with the pandemic, everybody was closed in.

So we're outside. Let's talk. Let's be together. Let's get some exercise in, maybe in the sun and this heat.

I don't know. You know, have a water after Joe. Sorry. You probably will join us.

But to see that, to kind of help maybe get them out of it and then hopefully they'll do the same for me. If I ever, you know, start seeing things in that way because with all the news headlines, like it's hard sometimes to get out of that. Yeah, I think too, you know, like check yourself. But like you're saying, go to a friend.

Hey, you know, I'm really down to myself. I don't think that it's worth it to do these things. I want to talk to you. Somebody trust who you know is going to support you.

Maybe they can get you out of that pessimistic mindset and to a more realistic mindset or they'll confirm. Yeah. No, I think not attainable for you, but not worth it. Not worth the effort.

That's really what this is about. Is it worth the effort to build up that motivation to go and get it? No. I think talking to people that you trust who know your abilities just as well as you do as well, it can be really helpful.

We had a friend said, I'm going to have work, you know, whatever. So I'm going to pack your clothes, you know, kind of thing. And so we did it. And so now she doesn't.

She's like, come on, let's go. Yeah. So that's great. Okay.

So now you do that for me. No, it's true. But the script and help me out too. But it was right.

I was like just trying to get there and get it done. We need help. And whenever you're in that, you know, down in the doms, nothing's going to go right. It's there's a million one excuses to not do something.

Yeah. But you really just need one excuse to get up and go. Yeah. And I'm your pest.

Let's do this. Yes. Well, that's good. All right.

You have a topic you want to cover? Email us info at the gift of life. It's that time on the gift of life podcast where we have our question and answer segment. And Laurie, this question goes to you.

So how do I find out about donating a kidney to someone? Okay. This makes me happy. We are getting lots of people paying attention wanting to do the research just like our guest did, Mark Scotch, and then do something more.

Like we asked people to go out and do something they wouldn't normally do. So they're wanting to find out more about this. The good thing is we have this resource, the gift of life podcast. So we've actually interviewed people who've gone through the steps.

So all you have to do is go to the gift of life dot org and then all you have to do is search for living donation and those will pop up so you can hear people down with the journey just like Mark Scotch did on this particular episode. Also, loba dot org, you know, have to push that out there. Loba dot org slash living donation. You can find information and details there and at your own pace and in your own comfort zone.

And then at voucher program that we talked about in this episode, we talked about before in the gift of life, a great program. It's the National Kidney donation organization. So in KDO dot org in KDO dot org. And just to say there are resources out there, there are more resources out there, more people are turning to this more people are wanting to do something selfless like this, which is amazing.

So I'm glad that you're starting to look in that direction. Those are some of the resources. And again, check out our the gifted life podcast library. All right, if you guys have a question for us, give us a call 504 648 3 4 7 7.

In every episode of the gift of life, we honor a hero. Today's hero is Rochelle Lejae and her family tells us she was a daughter, sister, mother, mother, nana and nanny always willing to give and always willing to help others. We thank Rochelle for saving and helping others. And now we pause and say thank you to Rochelle for the gift of life.

This is the Get to Life podcast and that was episode 169. Very special thanks to you, Mr. Hugh, Mark and Lynn for coming in and sharing their next, basically the next chapter in their journey of friendship that they've had. And he is so fun to talk to with you.

And then Mark and Lynn are such wonderful people. Yes, at the party of Natcha, my favorite part was that Hugh's family like, cousins, mom and dad, like everybody came from Natcha and they said, we're gonna take a family picture. And so everybody scooted back, myself, Mark, Lynn, and mom said, Mark, Lynn, you're the family. And so they ran, and that was so sweet.

So they are one big family. But like I said, it impacts the whole family, the whole community and so special to watch. It does. And I just want to clarify just for the listeners out there, you know, we talked a lot about the voucher program.

And I know in our last podcast with them on, we talked a little bit more about Hugh's side of the voucher program and just to reiterate that part because Mark took part in the voucher program there, of course, at University of Wisconsin, he was able to then pass his voucher. So to speak to Mr. Hugh. So then that voucher was able to put you at the top of the list for the next suitable kidney that came that was available.

And so that's why, you know, of course, Mark didn't directly donate to Hugh, but indirectly, he truly did. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. He said he's forever family.

And how do you say thank you for something like that? And so Mark just tells you live your best life and you know, our buddy, Hugh, he's gonna do that. So we love that. Thanks for listening guys.

And the best place to find us is at our website, which is thegiftedlife.org. You can listen to any of our episodes on our website or wherever you like to listen, whether it's Google Spotify or Apple podcasts. If you do, listen on Apple, rate, review and subscribe so that others can find our podcast. If you're not a registered donor, you can do so anytime, registerme.org.

If you're stolen through Facebook, check out the Get to Life podcast, follow us there, Twitter and Instagram or at Get to Life pod. We hope that you go out and do something you would normally do to help us make life happen or one big team. This is a production of LOPA, or the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency. The Get to Life is hosted by Lori Steele, Joey Buudreau and Sarah Blakemore, our executive producer is Kirsten Himes, producer Ishelan Caraway.

Intern is Rebecca Rannam and we are recorded, engineered and mixed in our Covington, Louisiana studio by Troy Perez. Bye, Troy Perez.