On May 25, 2007, Jacob Rian Campbell was welcomed to the world by his mother, Holly, his father, Andy, and his brother, Ben. He was beautiful and healthy. For two-and-a-half months, he blessed his family with his beautiful baby smile.

But on August 13, Jake stopped breathing in his bassinette and was rushed to the hospital. Although his heartbeat was recovered, he had suffered irreversible brain damage.

“When we learned that he would not be able to survive, that there was absolutely no chance of recovery, we asked about organ donation,” recalled Holly. “We knew that, although Jake was going to leave this world behind, there was a way his life could continue. Through the miracle of organ donation, Jake would live on, becoming a hero and giving some purpose to what otherwise would only be a meaningless heartbreak.

“On August 16, we said our final goodbyes to our second son. I had spent a lot of time cuddled up with Jake and singing to him during his short life, so I sang him a final song called, ‘For Good.’ The lyrics - ‘So much of me is made of what I learned from you / You’ll be with me like a handprint on my heart’ - have stuck with me ever since.”

A match was soon found for Jake’s heart – a two-week old baby boy in Iowa – as well as for his corneas.

About five months later, Andy did an internet search for Jake’s heart recipient. He found a blog by a family in Iowa whose son, Beckham, received a heart transplant when he was two-weeks old – it was Jake’s heart recipient. The Campbells quietly followed Beckham’s progress through the blog, until his mother wrote to them in October 2008. Since then, the two families have stayed in touch, exchanging stories and sharing the miracle of a single heart.

This past summer, the Campbells attended the U.S. Transplant Games in Madison, WI, where Holly sang “For Good” during the opening ceremonies. “Amazingly, Kim, Beckham’s mom, sang him the very same song after his transplant to soothe him when he was in pain,” said Holly. “One heart, joined by two boys, two moms, and one song.

“On the first day of the Transplant Games, we experienced one of the most poignant and beautiful moments of our lives: we hugged our son’s heart recipient. When I held Beckham in my arms, it was like Jake’s little life had come full circle. His gift had brought life to another boy, another family, when all hope was gone. Meeting Beckham and his family, as well as numerous other recipients and their families over the course of the Games, has made us even more aware of the importance of organ and tissue donation. We hope to continue promoting the cause throughout our community so that others will be able to make the same choice we did, so that life can continue even in the face of death.”