At times when we think that social media can be toxic for our mental health with all the negative stories it portrays, just at that time a story emerges from the depth of the ashes that revives our faith in humanity. A similar story is of Bo Harris who took it to social media to find himself a donor and share his chronic illness with the world.
Harris is a 55-year-old male living in Provincetown, Massachusetts who was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease in 2015. He has been to countless numbers of doctors since then over the five years and has experienced severe fatigue, body aches and at one point had a fight against Lung cancer. The only way for him to overcome and fight his kidney disease was to get a kidney transplant.
Around 37 million people in United States are fighting with a kidney disease and more than one hundred thousand are in search of a donor and even though the donor rate has increased by a solid 38 percent with people willingly wanting to donate their organs to help those in need, donating an organ is not an easy process. It requires an immense amount of tests ensuring that the donor and patient are both compatible in terms of matching blood and tissues. The match is usually found in relatives, specifically siblings with 25 percent having the exact match with their siblings while 50 percent are likely to get at least half a match, which is more than enough for a transplant, but there are some cases where no one among the siblings are a perfect match or cannot donate due to some medical issues. The same happened with Bo here.
Bo’s husband of 27 years cannot donate him an organ because he himself battled with cancer very recently while all of Bo’s siblings were declared ineligible to donate as well due to some reasons. So when Bo lost all hope, it was regained back when he attended a panel at Medstar Georgetown Transplant institute in Fairfax, Virginia. The panel held a discussion and gave tips to people seeking for donors on how to use social media as a means to reach out to people willingly want to donate because of the immensely increasing demands of donations in organs this step was necessary.
Social media is filled with stories of people sharing their stories and reaching out to people in search of a potential organ donor. Some have succeeded and living a happy life now and some are still in search.
For Bo never being much of a social media person, this was big step. Putting him and his disease out open in the world, but he is glad he did. According to Bo Harris, the world has come a long way from the time he used to use a type writer in school to now where he is using a social media platform to connect with so many people from different parts of the world. He was initially reluctant on posting his story and searching for a donor through the web, however the amount of love he has received made it all worth it and it is true that the positivity and kind people in the world are still present, you just have to take a closer look.
So many people reached out to Bo, wanting to donate to him but unfortunately he still has not found a match. The search still continues and we are hopeful that Bo and hundreds like him will find donors and will eventually lead a healthy and prosperous life.
H/T: TG.
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Harris is a 55-year-old male living in Provincetown, Massachusetts who was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease in 2015. He has been to countless numbers of doctors since then over the five years and has experienced severe fatigue, body aches and at one point had a fight against Lung cancer. The only way for him to overcome and fight his kidney disease was to get a kidney transplant.
Around 37 million people in United States are fighting with a kidney disease and more than one hundred thousand are in search of a donor and even though the donor rate has increased by a solid 38 percent with people willingly wanting to donate their organs to help those in need, donating an organ is not an easy process. It requires an immense amount of tests ensuring that the donor and patient are both compatible in terms of matching blood and tissues. The match is usually found in relatives, specifically siblings with 25 percent having the exact match with their siblings while 50 percent are likely to get at least half a match, which is more than enough for a transplant, but there are some cases where no one among the siblings are a perfect match or cannot donate due to some medical issues. The same happened with Bo here.
Bo’s husband of 27 years cannot donate him an organ because he himself battled with cancer very recently while all of Bo’s siblings were declared ineligible to donate as well due to some reasons. So when Bo lost all hope, it was regained back when he attended a panel at Medstar Georgetown Transplant institute in Fairfax, Virginia. The panel held a discussion and gave tips to people seeking for donors on how to use social media as a means to reach out to people willingly want to donate because of the immensely increasing demands of donations in organs this step was necessary.
Social media is filled with stories of people sharing their stories and reaching out to people in search of a potential organ donor. Some have succeeded and living a happy life now and some are still in search.
For Bo never being much of a social media person, this was big step. Putting him and his disease out open in the world, but he is glad he did. According to Bo Harris, the world has come a long way from the time he used to use a type writer in school to now where he is using a social media platform to connect with so many people from different parts of the world. He was initially reluctant on posting his story and searching for a donor through the web, however the amount of love he has received made it all worth it and it is true that the positivity and kind people in the world are still present, you just have to take a closer look.
So many people reached out to Bo, wanting to donate to him but unfortunately he still has not found a match. The search still continues and we are hopeful that Bo and hundreds like him will find donors and will eventually lead a healthy and prosperous life.
Read next: “Buy nothing”- A Facebook Community that is all about trustworthy and generous people
