Qyana Porter

Type of Donation:      

Age and Location:      21

Donation Date:           2014

Sponsor:                      

QYANA’S STORY

Qyana Mone Porter, known to all who loved her as Kiki, was a vibrant, cheerful young woman. If a person asked anyone who had the pleasure of knowing her, they would all have different words for her: driven, smart, determined, energetic, beautiful, and her smile and laugh were infectious! These are just a few words that describe the loving daughter, sister, auntie, granddaughter, and cousin he was to us all. Her bubbliness is what bound many of us—twenty-one years of life fulfilled with the things she enjoyed most. She experienced what most teenagers did early on: getting her license, her first job at McDonald's, graduating from high school, attending college, buying her first car, and embarking into the "grown-up world" with what she called her first real job as a customer service representative for Amtrak. Qyana's pre-teen years proved challenging when she began having seizures. Her strength was phenomenal during this time. The struggle she faced with emergency room visits, countless doctor's appointments, and the uncertainty of independence didn't sway her. She pushed on with her love of who she was and who she would become. I didn't think she, as a teenager, would have thought about the conversation about becoming a donor when she obtained her driver's license. She said, "If I can help someone, I will." This statement came to fruition in 2014 when Qyana succumbed to her brain injury incurred from a seizure. When it came time for the hardest decision parents would make, there was no question or hesitation from her dad or mom. Qyana will forever be remembered as Kikigirl and forever 21.