Alicia MacAleese

Type of Donation:       corneas

Age and Location:      Age 41 – Reno, NV

Donation Date:           10/26/2021

Sponsor:                      Honored by Nevada Donor Network

ALICIA’S STORY

Alicia Grauvogel-MacAleese was one of the kindest and most compassionate humans anyone could meet. She loved life and always wanted to help others. She was an accomplished behavior analyst who co-founded a business supporting students with behavior problems in school settings. She had deep relationships with friends and family and loved dogs. She loved reading, music, and the outdoors. Despite the richness of her personal life and professional contributions, she would have listed her greatest accomplishment as being a mother to her two children. She left us at the age of 41. Before she died, she told her family members that she would like to contribute to others posthumously. More specifically, she wanted others to contribute time or money to local pet adoption agencies/shelters or cancer research. She also asked others to donate blood because it was often needed during her treatments.







And as final gifts she could make personally, she wanted her clothing to be donated to local women's shelters, her hair to be used to help make wigs and any viable organs or tissues to be used for others who needed them (and if not, for future medical training or science). In the late evening on the day she died, her husband received a call from Nevada Donor Network. The staff member calling needed some information to obtain her corneas, which they believed would be viable (and they had to work quickly). It was a shock as there was an assumption that her metastasized cancer would not allow any of her organs or tissues to be used. We were excited to learn that her corneas were unaffected and could be used to help others! We learned that both corneas were transplanted for two waiting individuals sometime later! This news brought her surviving family members great joy, knowing Alicia was still able to contribute even after her death, and Alicia would have been proud to know that her donation made a difference in the lives of others.