Amazing Mom Donors

North Carolina high school sweethearts Rodney and Brenda Johnson have been married 30 years. Rodney has suffered from diabetes since he was a young man, and the disease eventually took its toll: he needed a new kidney. Sons Deric and Ryan offered to get tested, but Brenda said she would go first so as not to disrupt their jobs. She was a perfect match and the surgery took place this past June. She is still healing, but the recovery is smooth. "I never thought in a million years I would be the one to donate him a kidney," said Brenda. "But when we made our vows, it was ‘Till death do us part.’”

Photo courtesy of the Johnson family

Diane Allen’s kidney donation in New Jersey came out of a desire for a fifth child. She already had two sons, so when she found love with second husband David—father of two daughters—she decided to donate a kidney to a complete stranger. “What motivated me to do this,” said Allen, “was the idea of [wanting] to manifest that love that we have: not wanting to have a child but wanting to put forth life,” she said.

Photo courtesy of the Allen family

Honica Brittman, a 35-year-old single mother of four from North Carolina, donated a kidney to a stranger in New York this past August. Brittman, who received nothing in return but good karma for life, kicked off a five-person kidney transplant chain. She decided to give her kidney after being heartbroken she was incompatible as a donor for a family friend. "To actually help somebody live a little bit, a lot longer, that's an awesome thing," she said.

In 2010, after watching her stepfather die from kidney disease brought on by diabetes, Corrie Lynn Wright went online to the National Kidney Registry and signed up to become a donor. Wright compared the experience with the unexplainable powerfulness one feels giving birth, though at one point was understandably fearful: “Any surgery is potentially life threatening. As a mother, I was scared about being selfish. How would my children cope without me?” However, Lynn says she’s proud of the example she has set: “My kids are both caring individuals and realize the world revolves around all of us. I will never regret my decision to donate.”

Photo courtesy of the Wright family

Dorothy Wolferseder is the mother of Scott Wolferseder, Erica Arsenault's ex husband with whom she has two sons. Despite the divorce, Erica didn’t forget Dorothy's kindnesses, including buying the diamond ring with which Scott proposed. So when Dorothy’s kidneys began to fail in 2011 without a medical reason and none of her three children was a match for a donation, Erica volunteered: “The minute I saw it on Facebook, I called the number,” Erica recalled.

When Megan Lazarte’s cousin Nathaniel Zavin had two kidney transplants fail last spring, she stepped up to the plate to donate hers after 35 other family members were unsuccessful as matches. Megan, mother of a 2-year-old, managed to help: “When the idea of the swap opened up, I had to do it. It didn’t matter to me where my kidney went as long as Nathaniel got one. And that I helped someone else as well is even better," she said. John Gantkowski, 30-year-old from Reading, Pa., was the lucky recipient. In a twist of fate, Gantkowsky’s mother Pamela, who has eight children, donated hers to Nathaniel.