While walking the Lake Havasu Boat Show last weekend I stopped by The Boat Brokers booth to see how my old friend Bill Draper was doing. Bill has been helping customers at this Arizona dealership select the best pontoon or deck boat for almost 30 years.
I was first introduced to Bill close to 15 years ago by Rick Bodley who at that time had set up a feature for me to cover the latest JC Marine TriToon on Havasu and I have kept in touch with both men ever since.
If you think your 2020 was rough, Bill truly had a devastating year the included losing his wife and best friend of 50 years as well as a sister and son that passed away within months of each other. While raising his 7-year-old granddaughter Bill continues to battle cancer and dealing with the ordeals of dialysis. You see, Bill is being kept alive by dialysis treatments because he had to have “both” of his kidneys removed several years ago due to cancer. Consequently, he was not eligible for a kidney transplant until he was 100 percent cancer-free.
“Bill is much more than a 28 year loyal trusted employee at The Boat Brokers, he is also one of my dearest friends and confidents,” said Dean Messmer, the owner of The Boat Brokers, who recently shared this story on WhiteSheetOnline.com. “If you didn’t know the back story you would never suspect Bill had a problem in the world because he felt he had to remain strong for his family and refuses to feel sorry for himself.”
While 2020 was a hard year, 2021 is looking much more promising for Bill. His doctors just declared him cancer-free, he passed his pre-transplant evaluation exams, and has been placed on the organ transplant list. That’s the good news. The tricky part is finding an organ donor and that’s why I’m reaching out to the PDB magazine family.
Bill could stay on dialysis, enduring 4.5 hour sessions, three times a week for the next 8-10 years while waiting on the organ transplant list for a cadaver kidney or he could try to find a generous humanitarian who is willing to donate one of their healthy kidneys.
There’s an exciting and relatively new program called “Living Shared Organ Donation” where the donor doesn’t have to be a direct match to Bill. The donor just has to be in good physical health and willing to donate a kidney in Bill’s name. The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) will locate a qualified recipient that is a match to Bill’s donor and arrange for the transplant.
In turn, Bill will receive an IOU, which guarantees him the next matching kidney. The procedure takes place at the world-renowned Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Ariz., which has successfully performed over 3,000 kidney transplants and is just one of the handful of medical facilities in the US that is capable of handling the complex logistics of choreographing multiple swap transplants at the same time.
In order to ensure a proper organ match in a timely fashion, this complicated organ swap could involve as many as seven donors and seven patients, often with patients and donors from around the globe all requiring their own operating room.
“I’m hoping that one of you or one of your friends would be so generous to donate ‘The Gift of Life’ to my dear and very deserving friend,” added Dean.
Besides the wonderful feeling of saving a life, another perk is you will now be on the UNOS priority list if you or someone in your immediate family should ever require an organ transplant.
There is no out of pocket expense to the donor, the recipients insurance will pay for the pre-qualifying exams and the transplant and if for some reason the perspective donor is not deemed to be a suitable candidate for the Living Shared Donor program, the donor just received a free comprehensive physical at one of the best medial facilities in the world.
“Please pass the word, and trust me when I say that Bill Draper is without a doubt the most deserving human being I know to receive this magnificent gift and I know that if the roles were reversed, Bill would be the very first one in line saying, ‘I have two good kidney’s, take one of mine,’” shared Dean. “That’s the type of guy you will be helping.”
If you would like more information or are interested in becoming a living organ donor, visit www.mayoclinic.org/livingdonor or call 480-342-1010.
