Donate Life Ambassador Spotlight!
Name: Sarah Whitley
Connection to Donation: In 2019, I was diagnosed with a fatal lung disease. My world became uncertain and bleak. Then, within sixth months in early 2020, the entire world became uncertain and bleak. Less than a year later I was rushed to the ER, on a ventilator, and after recovering from acute pneumonia, was informed that my next best treatment option was a double lung transplant. Over a year later, I was rushed to the ER, again, with a collapsed lung. Then around eight days later, I received the call. The call that meant I was about to receive my second chance at life.
Why do you volunteer? The joys, fears, happiness, melancholy, grief, and uncertainty that accompanied me throughout my diagnosis and transplant is why I chose to volunteer for Lifeline of Ohio. I am so incredibly grateful to the transplant community here in Columbus and knew I wanted to give back in anyway that I could to support those going through transplant in any capacity and those who help facilitate this process on a daily basis.
My donor provided me with the gift of life. I want their memory to carry on through acts of kindness and support within the transplant community. There is a true ripple effect when a life, many lives, are saved by one selfless, kind, and caring individual.
It is truly incredible to be able to breathe again.
If you had a million dollars, what would you do with it?Realistically, the different ways I would want to distribute a million dollars is most likely not feasible. There are so many people in our community and across the world who need help. Ideally, I would equally distribute funds for healthcare access, educational organizations supporting education in low-income areas, community gardens and food organizations, lung disease research & transplant medication research, and supporting or creating a non-profit organization that houses dogs that had not been adopted, senior dogs or those waiting too long, with a well-paid staff and plenty of room to run around! Then, if there were anything left over, I would buy a remote, comfortable cabin in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for my husband, myself, and our dogs.