While doctors say she is not at risk, Jody Woodward knows all about polycistic kidney disease.
"As a little girl I used to go to with my grandmother to Charlottesville to be on dialysis and I used to watch the machines," said Woodward.
The home health nurse wanted to donate a kidney to her cousin -- when that didn't work out... she contacted the Medical Center at UVA in August, and by December, the procedure to give Doug Farmer, of Bluefield, West Virginia, a kidney, was all set.
"I didn't feel like I was giving him life, only God gives life. But I felt like I was giving him quality of life."
Policy at UVA's hospital says the donor and recipient are not permitted to meet for one year...and in that case, the recipient must contact the donor. But both Farmer and Woodward had the meeting of a lifetime before the surgery ever began.
"Next thing you know, him and his family are all in the doorway, and we're all hugging and crying. It was a great moment. It ranks up there with the birth of my children."
A t-shirt that reads thank you to uva's transplant team...reminds woodward of the bond that can be made between Hokies and Wahoos.
"I have seen what in stage renal failure does to families. If you can make a difference in one person's life that's what we need to do."
Her efforts are just one page in what she hopes will be a new chapter in fighting this disease.
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