Help the Donohues

I have known Stefanie since she transferred to my school in 1991; I was seven years old. We became inseparable pretty early on. So many happy memories of my childhood include Stef. We fell out of touch in our high school years as we lived in different towns and went to different schools. We reconnected when I was in college, and she was living in FL, and we picked up right where we left off!

Skipping forward just a little bit, I remember when Stefanie started dating Ryan. I immediately felt like I had known him forever when we first met. He was super easygoing, funny, and most importantly, PERFECT for my best friend. We hit it off immediately, and the three of us spent lots of our free time together. When I think about it now, I realize that many of my happy adulthood memories still include Stefanie, but now include Ryan as well. They both came to my college graduation. I was in their wedding. They now have 4 beautiful children, and I have 6 (blended family). Plenty of things have and continue to strengthen our bond over the years.

Unfortunately, I have always known Ryan to be very sick. You would never know it, though, because he never lets it show. In high school, he had emergency surgery to remove part of his intestine and colon after being diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis. And about fifteen years ago, he was diagnosed with Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis, a chronic liver disease in which the bile ducts become inflamed and scarred and, eventually, narrowed and blocked completely. This causes bile to build up within the liver, leading to irreversible damage. Now, Ryan's liver is failing, and he needs a living liver donor. He has been officially on the national donor list since Feb 2nd, 2022, waiting and hoping for his match. With the help of social media, news articles and aired stories, banners, flyers, and plain old word of mouth, we have gotten his story out there, way out there!!!! Many people have flooded the donation center applying for Ryan. Some have even gone on to look at donating to others!!

While we all wait and pray for his match, time goes by slowly. Ryan and Stefanie are both unable to work right now because he doesn't have the strength, or energy, to take care of their kids all day. With four growing children, the costs for food alone are a lot. These two people are absolutely amazing, and I cannot imagine my life without them. They need assistance, and I believe we can help them.

Please consider donating what you can to help cover their cost of living. Let's lessen their financial burden so they can remain focused on finding a liver to keep Ryan around for as long as possible.