I just had to write after seeing last week’s Acorn article on the kidney transplants and want to thank you for bringing this to people’s attention.

Fourteen years ago I donated my right kidney to my father, who was 68 at the time. He was on home dialysis, four times per day.

He is now 82 years old and doing well back in Michigan. His quality of life has improved dramatically—not that he complained, because he doesn’t—but I’m confident it has extended his life at least 10 years or more. He continues to take anti-rejection medicine and gets the kidney checked every six months, but it has performed flawlessly in the time he has had it.

As for me, all is well. The first six weeks of recovery were difficult at times, but that is a very small price to pay to extend someone’s life. Since the recovery period, I have changed very little in my life due to the lack of a kidney. I was also blessed with my first child, a son, Sam, just 10 months later, a gift far beyond anything that I could imagine.

Thanks so much for getting this article out there to the public. The more people see others doing this, the more they can connect and perhaps will be willing to help someone in the future.

Paul Maples
Agoura Hills