GRESHAM, Ore. (KOIN) – Ken Reese remembers how selfless his mother, Doris, was. When he was a high school student 49 years ago, his mom gave him a new lease on life by donating one of her kidneys to him.
“She was actually very selfless. She raised five kids, comes from a Swedish heritage,” Ken Reese told NewsNation affiliate KOIN. “We were always close, but I think it brought us closer. There was a situation in the hospital, right before transplant where I had asked her, ‘Do you really want to do this? Is this OK?’ She said, ‘Of course!'”
The transplant allowed him to go to college, marry and have a family. As the years went on, they stayed close as life with his mom’s kidney became even more meaningful.
“We would always call each other on October 6th, … my transplant date,” he said. “So we would always call each other, talk to each other, go out for dinner.”
On Nov. 18, Doris Reese would have turned 100 years old. Although she died in 2012 at age 88, her kidney is still working well inside her son.
On average, kidney transplants last 10-15 years. Ken Reese has had his mom’s kidney for nearly a half-century.
In recent times, though, he has faced different health challenges, including skin cancer.
“The medications you take to hang onto your kidney, the immuno-suppressants, do have a long-term side effect,” he said.
But his strength to live comes in part from his mother’s kidney and the way she taught him to live.
His mom, he said, was a “strong woman, strong Christian woman, and she was selfless in giving it. She was 50 when she did (give him her kidney) and she passed away at 88, so it didn’t really impact her life at all.”
Ken Reese, a longtime supporter of Oregon’s Donate Life Northwest, wants others to learn more about organ donation.
“There is a saying I like to use, and that’s: ‘She’s given me life twice.’ And that is one of the most important things is I always have a part of her with me, and I want to hang on to that for as long as I can,” he said. “I just keep plugging along.”
