DONATE LIFE ORGAN DONATION AWARENESS-WISCONSIN

Your Stories: Gift Of A Lifetime

A Wisconsin man who received a kidney transplant teaches kids about the importance of organ donation.

Reporter: Chuck Koch

WMTV, Madison, Wi

This is one of Your Stories.

When David Conrad was 22, he was diagnosed with chronic glomerulonephritis, a rare kidney disease that forced him to make some big life changes.

"I was on dialysis for a year in 1984. Three times a week, 4 hours a day," says Conrad. "It tended to interfere a little bit. In the beginning I'd go first thing in the morning and try to go to the office, it slowed down a little bit. But eventually, it's not a long term solution and so, near the end of the year, we decided to do the transplant," continued Conrad.

"I was just very fortunate to be able to get a kidney from my brother at my age, age 42, and my wife and I are just trying to spread the word and give a little bit of that back to the community," adds Conrad.

Using Velcro vests, foam kidneys and enlisting the help of the young people he visits, Conrad taught kids in Waterloo today about the difficulties of finding a good match and how important it is to become an organ donor.

Conrad hopes that through his program, he can inspire others to become organ donors to save a life, just like his. "It's just a gift of a lifetime, it changes your life. You're healthy and you can do all kinds of things you wouldn't be able to do otherwise," says Conrad.

For more information on how to become an organ donor, visit www.transplantwisconsin.org.