North Fork resident talks life after organ transplant Brian Wilkinson
Student needs to raise $2,500 for Transplant Games
Jill Nolen, 21, of North Fork is on a fundraising mission to participate Aug. 2-6 in the U.S. Summer Transplant Games in Madison, Wis.
The California State University, Fresno, senior, studying to be an American Sign Language interpreter, is part of an 80-member California team taking part in the special games to honor and celebrate the lives of organ donors.
"The transplant games are an Olympics-style event bringing thousands of people together to show people how healthy we are after our transplants, how we can use our bodies and to inspire others to become donors," Nolen said.
Nolen knows firsthand the importance of donors. She received two liver transplants by the time she was 1 year old.
"At three months, I was diagnosed with biliary atresia, a fancy term for liver failure," Nolen said. "I received two transplants and many other operations to sustain me during the time I was without a fully functioning liver. I became a survivor on Sept. 26, 1989, because a 7-year-old boy's parents made the generous decision to allow him to be a donor. The match is near-perfect."
She said the youngster was struck and killed by a car while riding his bike in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Nolen's body rejected the first transplant when she was 6 months old. The second, at age 11 months, was successful. The transplants were performed in San Francisco at then-Pacific Presbyterian Medical Center.
Nolen said she lives a normal life, taking only a small amount of anti-rejection medication daily.
In addition to participating in the games, she wants to spread awareness of the increasing need for organ and tissue donations.
"Currently, more than 100,000 men, women and children are waiting for a life-saving organ transplant in the U.S.," Nolen said. "Every 10 minutes another name is added to the national organ transplant waiting list, and an average of 18 people die each day from the lack of available organs. My team and I want to help improve these statistics."
Her research shows that, in 2009, there were 8,021 deceased organ donors and 6,610 living organ donors, resulting in 28,465 total organ transplants in the United States.
"There were also more than 42,000 skin grafts made available last year for transplant," Nolen said.
The organization responsible for the games is the National Kidney Foundation Inc., a health agency dedicated to preventing kidney diseases, improving the health and well-being of individuals and families affected by the diseases and increasing the availability of all organs for transplantation.
In 2010, the foundation marks its 60th anniversary and its 20th year as organizer of the U.S. Transplant Games.
The foundation supports patients and the transplant community through its extensive work in public and professional education, patient and community services and research and organ donation.
Nolen, the daughter of Michael and Judy Nolen, will participate in tennis, bowling and volleyball at the games. Other events at the games are golf, swimming, track and field, cycling and racquetball.
She has been involved in gymnastics since her mother introduced her to Gymnastics by Diane in Oakhurst at age 6. She now teaches at the gym.
The California team consists of 30 transplant-recipient athletes, 13 donor athletes and 32 supporters.
"What makes these games more exciting for me is that our team manager is the mother of my hospital roommate when we were both babies," Nolen said.
In 2006, Nolen met her surgeon, Dr. Carlos Esquivel, for the first time in 17 years at North Fork's Grizzly Century cycling event. She was volunteering at the T-shirt table when her dad and the event director brought the doctor over and asked her if she knew the man.
"Right away I said no, but after I looked at my dad and looked back at the man, I put two and two together," Nolen said. "I was completely speechless."
The chance meeting was not planned. Michael Nolen, with his back to the doctor, recognized his voice. The tears followed. The doctor now practices at Stanford Medical Center.
Today, Nolen enjoys Fresno State and her campus job as a student assistant in the division of graduate studies.
Nolen said she thinks getting involved with sign language was one of the best decisions she has ever made. She initially wanted to become a physical therapist and work in a children's hospital.
"In a sense, I always knew it was a poor choice because science has always been difficult for me," she said.
She took a deaf-culture class and said her deaf teacher, Rosemary Diaz, was "truly inspiring." She soon changed her major and has never looked back.
"I am now majoring in something that makes me all giddy inside whenever I think or talk about it," Nolen said. "I have already made some life-lasting friendships with people of the deaf culture."
She is on track to graduate in 2012.
For Nolen and her team to compete at the Transplant Olympic Games, fundraising efforts are under way to pay for registration, air fare, lodging, meals and insurance. Every team member needs to raise $2,500.
A fundraiser was held for her last weekend at Jamba Juice in Oakhurst. Sweet Tomatoes Restaurant on North Fresno Street, adjacent to Kaiser Hospital in Fresno, will donate to the California team 15% of sales from customers with special fliers from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday.
Fliers for the Sweet Tomatoes fundraiser are available at Mug and Brush or Gymnastics by Diane.
"I have loved my life, and I wouldn't be able to say that if it weren't for my donor family and my own family," Nolen said. "My story is very similar to that of many other recipient families, and there are plenty more families waiting for the day they can say the same thing."
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