Jace Brady
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April is a special month for me. It is Donate Life month, a time to bring awareness to the social benefits of registering as an organ, eye, and tissue donor. It is also a time for me to reflect and share my gratitude for the family that made the selfless decision to donate their child’s organ, eyes and tissue.

When I was in high school, I dislocated my kneecap during a high-school football game. What was originally a relatively minor injury remedied with a minor surgery was aggravated by subsequent injuries and general wear and tear. By the time I was 20, my mobility was severely limited, I was in immense pain, and many days, I required a cane to walk.

Eventually, the pain was so bad I rarely left my bed, and I started looking for solutions. I stumbled across a new surgery that required a series of operations in an attempt to restore the cartilage in my knee. The doctor adjusted my tibia in an attempt to take pressure off my knee and removed a cartilage sample to grow in a petri dish and reinsert in my knee. Several surgeries and a year later, I was more miserable than ever.

The surgeries had left me with severe nerve damage in my leg and failed to cure my original condition. I stopped going to school and was on around-the-clock pain medicine. My personality changed, I became depressed, I couldn’t sleep, and I gained more than 50 pounds. Occasionally, I wondered if my life was worth living.

During the worst time in my life, someone was suffering more. While I lay in bed believing my life would never be the same, someone’s family was being torn apart by the loss of a child. While I pitied my existence, a family made the selfless decision to donate their child’s organs, eyes, and tissue. Someone, somewhere made a decision that saved my life.

In June 2013, I received a juvenile cartilage transplant. A child’s cartilage was taken and inserted in my knee because a family was willing to share. In six months, my life was changed. I re-enrolled in college, I was able to stop taking pain medicine, I slowly started going back the gym and losing weight, and I started to return to the person I wanted to be.

Today, I am a graduate student in the UI College of Public Health, I play racquetball and run every week, I am married to a beautiful woman, and I owe it all to one selfless decision. While it may seem like this story is about me, it is not. This is the story about a family’s tragedy and the monumentally selfless decision they made in a moment of despair. In a time when everything should have been about them, they thought about others. Even if they didn’t know it, they thought about me. Because of their choice, my story will always be their story. To this family and to their child, I am eternally grateful.

A gift of tissue has had an enduring impression on my life. Imagine the impact a heart, lungs, or eyes could have. I was given the gift of walking; by registering as a donor, you could give the gift of breath, the gift of sight, the gift of life. Today, 124,000 individuals are waiting for their gift of organs, eyes, or tissue. You can potentially help save these individuals’ lives by registering as an organ, eye, or tissue donor. If you would like to register, please visit registerme.org.