Liver Recipient to Run Marathon

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Donating organs can transform lives

By TERRI WILLIS

Published on: 09/14/07

I was born with tyrosinemia, a metabolic disease where the liver doesn't have the enzymes it needs to break down protein.

I was on a strict no protein-diet along with a list of medicines and spent the majority of my time in the hospital. All this went on up until my early teens. As a result of the tyrosinemia, I was found to have liver cancer. This is when we were told I needed a liver transplant.

Family photo
(ENLARGE)
Terri Willis ran a half-marathon in May. She plans to be in the Marine Corps Marathon in October.

I was on the transplant list for two months. At age 13, I became a liver transplant recipient. The cancer was already covering the whole liver and the gallbladder. If I had waited any longer, it would have been too late.

Today, at 29, I am on very few immunosuppressants and am as healthy as any normal person could be. I compete in track at the U.S. Transplant Games put on every two years by the National Kidney Foundation. Sort of like our own Olympics, its purpose is to showcase the success of transplantation. I first heard about them while watching a news story about it. They showed a girl running. Having never run myself, I wanted that to be me. During my first games in 2000, I couldn't run more than 200 meters and even that was hard on me.

I have been to four games since and have been inspired to push myself more. Last year, after the 2006 games, I decided to run a mile. It was the first time I had run that far in my life. I wanted to know how much farther I could go.

After running a couple of 5Ks and a 10K, I decided I wanted to run 10 miles before New Year's Day. I entered and ran a half-marathon in May and am now training to run the full 26.2-mile Marine Corps Marathon, which will be held Oct. 28 in Arlington, Va.

I am telling my story so the public can see how important organ donation is.

My donor was an 11-year-old girl from Arkansas. I don't know her name or anything else about her but she is what motivates me the most. I have a little Arkansas Razorback pin that I wear anytime I run a race in honor of her.

If her parents had not agreed to donate her organs then I wouldn't be alive today doing any of this. I am hoping people who read this will see what good can come of it. All it takes is signing a donor card and letting your family know of your wishes. You can learn more about organ donation through the National Kidney Foundation's Web site (www.kidney.org).

I also want people waiting for a transplant as well as the general public to see that transplant recipients can lead normal active lives.

— Terri Willis lives in Douglasville.

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/opinion/stories/2007/09/13/organed_0914.html