Transplant recipient ready to give back to Gift of Life

Montgomery News | Mike Morsch
There is no “Say it ain’t so” with this Joe.

And that makes Joe Radvansky quite possibly the most positive guy you’ll ever meet. Even when he was lying on an operating table awaiting a heart transplant in 1996, he wasn’t thinking the worst.

“You don’t go in with those images of not coming out,” Radvansky said recently in an interview. “Even though the reality is that it can happen.”

But that’s kind of been Radvansky’s approach his entire life, even when he’s dealt a pretty bad hand. The positive vibes just jump off the guy and onto anyone who talks to him.

Now the Lansdale resident is retired from the profession he’s loved for 39 years — teaching and coaching — and ready to give even more back than he already has, by getting involved in Gift of Life, the organ procurement program that years ago provided him with an opportunity to see both of his children graduate, marry and introduce him to his grandson.

“Staying positive is the most important thing to do,” said Radvansky, now 63. “I pray a lot. I think I’m a pretty spiritual person, a religious person. And my wife, Diane, is a pretty strong person.”

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{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}