Holiday Gifts about the Greatest Gift

If you’re still looking for ideas for a holiday–or any kind of–gift, consider a batch of my personal favorites on my favorite subject. A couple of years ago,I described several here, and they’re still books I regularly recommend. I also have a few to add:

Ascending America, by Matt Harmody, just came out in November. Before I read this beautiful book about living-donor mountain climbers and world records, I didn’t know a thing about mountain climbing and had no particular interest in it. But as a living kidney donor/advocate, I, of course had to check it out. I’m very glad I did.

I wrote about the author here a while back when I did a post about living kidney donors climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2022. This time Matt was part of a team of living donors who broke a Guinness world record by climbing 50 state summits in 43 days! The riveting text explains just enough about the technical parts of climbing to grasp the exciting situations but not enough to bore the layperson.

And readers who are more interested in the climbing will also learn about kidney donation–as much or as little as they’d like, because the short, specific, and very accessible chapters are designed for easy reference. A retired emergency physician, Matt knows how to explain medical information to make it understandable to the rest of us. For readers who want to delve further, the chapters have extensive footnotes.

The donor team’s message is that even living donors who were ultra-athletes before donating needn’t fear that donating will necessarily alter their active lifestyle. My only caveat in writing about these amazing advocates is the need to continually remind readers that you don’t need to be a mountain climber-type to be a living donor. Living donors aren’t a breed apart–most of us are simply very healthy, caring individuals who were touched by someone’s need and were in a position to do something about it.

Because of Organ Donation: The Ripple Effect of Hope Continues, by Brenda E. Cortez. I’ve written about Brenda before, with her HOWL the Owl children’s series on donation and the first Because of Organ Donation.

The latest edition first came to my attention because of my interest in one of the contributors, Stormi Murtie. I wrote about Stormi’s tireless efforts to donate her kidney to her firefighter stepson in another state. His rare, life-threatening disease had drastically reduced his chances of finding a match. Her chapter evocatively details the anguish and frustrating delays they experienced, which were exacerbated by the terrible timing: the early phases of COVID.

Ultimately, Stormi’s stepson received a deceased donor transplant [which, sadly, failed after two years, so he is once again in need of a donor]. By then Stormi was determined to donate anyway and did it through a donor exchange program. The book’s companion chapter was written by her grateful recipient’s wife, who was also a living donor in an exchange. The families have become close.

The warm bond and resulting close relationships between donor and recipient families is a familiar theme in these stories and in those of so many donation advocates I’ve met.

One particularly memorable chapter is by a woman whose family lost their adult son in a tragic ski accident. She describes the remarkable and unexpected relationship that resulted when their son’s liver matched with a young man who lived nearby. When his wife gave birth to twins, they warmly accepted the older couple as their children’s adopted grandparents. The couple continues to be actively involved in the growing children’s lives, one of whom was named after the donor.

As in the first book, the contributors bring a wide variety of perspectives and write movingly about their donation/transplant experiences. I’m reminded that despite the similarities, no two donor-recipient stories are the same, and I always learn something from them. I’m also invariably inspired by people who have repeatedly experienced life-threatening episodes and choose to devote much time and energy to advocating for donation.

I previously reviewed here Understanding Living Kidney Donation, by Glenna Frey, a nephrology nurse who is also a living donor; it’s an excellent and comprehensive book on kidney disease and donation; and Gifted, by Robert Horsey, which, unlike the other books, is a poignant novel. It’s inspired by the author ‘s professional experience and commitment to donation as an organ procurement coordinator.

And if you’d like to gift my book, The Insider’s Guide to Living Kidney Donation, you can take advantage of the current 25% off on the paperback by using promo code HOLIDAY at checkout at this link.