2019 Gary Frey

Name:                                    Gary Frey

Type of Donation:             Living kidney donor

Age and Location:             Age 57 – Farmington, NM

Donation Date:                   7/18/2017

Sponsor:                               Honored by One Legacy

GARY’S STORY

Gary learned of Jenna’s need for a kidney transplant while casually checking his Facebook feed one day in November of 2012. He came across a post from her godmother, Rhonda Frey. He felt a still, small voice urging him to help. Upon doing preliminary research, Gary discovered that he and Jenna were not blood type matches.

Shortly after, Gary learned about the donor exchange program and he still felt the urge to help Jenna out. Gary volunteered to be tested and went through the screening process in March of 2013, where he was deemed a suitable donor and he and Jenna entered the paired exchange database. For several reasons, Jenna was a tough match and 3 years later they were still waiting.

An injury to his back, and more importantly the time to heal from it, made evidence the fact that Gary was not getting any younger, and he was becoming concerned that he would not be in the optimum physical condition to donate. In late 2016, Gary learned of the Advance Donor program at UCLA and was interested in pursuing the exchange. He consulted with Jenna’s mom, Karol, and was happy to learn that they had recently transferred her case to UCLA!  Gary screened with UCLA and he was deemed a suitable donor in February 2017. Due to a series of life events, Gary deferred being listed on the advance donor list until July of 2017, and as fate would have it, a scenario unfolded and in June a match was found for Jenna on the East Coast.

At the age of 56, Gary donated his kidney to an anonymous recipient on July 18, 2017 and 8 days later, Jenna received a kidney. The rewards of donating have been beyond measure for Gary. He has since become connected with his kidney recipient and he learned that he had been on dialysis for 5 years and was ready to give up. Gary’s kidney gave him and his daughters a new hope, and they are grateful to see Jenna’s health improve dramatically, thanks to the transplant she received through the kidney exchange program.