We wanted to share this amazing write-up about one of our very own team members, Victoria Threadgould.
"Thursday, Feb 24th of 2022, Victoria became the new Austin Adult Abdominal Transplant Center's (at Dell Seton) second kidney donor, but it's first one to give a nondirected gift through the National Kidney Registry. Nondirected means that she did not know the person who would get the kidney."
Victoria bravely donated her kidney to an unknown recipient, which will trigger a string of recipients being re-matched with suitable kidney donors. That means Victoria could save multiple lives with her donation! That's paying it WAY forward.
"Her recipient has a living kidney donor that wasn't a match. That donor's kidney will go into another person, who also has a living donor that didn't match. The chain of donations continues until the donation eventually comes back around to a person registered at Dell Seton's program who needs a kidney but doesn't have a match yet. The chain can have many different donor/recipient pairs and can take weeks to months before it comes back around to someone in Austin."
"She's helping so many more people," said Travis Watson, the transplant administrator at Dell Seton, because she's beginning this donation chain. He expects the center will do five to 10 non-directed kidney donations a year and work up to 20 a year."
"Victoria doesn't personally know anyone with kidney disease, but she said, "I'm quite fit and healthy, and I do what I can to help other people."
"Victoria, 39, runs marathons, cycles, and she is a Pilates instructor at I Am Total Wellness Studios in Austin, Texas. She also offers Pilates classes at Pilates' People and a few other studios around Austin. She became interested in becoming a living kidney donor after listening to several podcasts and doing extensive research."
Way to go Victoria, you are incredible!
To know more about Victoria's story, read the full article on Austin American Statesman here.