HEMET: Transplant recipient celebrates new life on New Year's
Hemet | Tom Sheridan
Photo: John Beers will be riding in the Rose Parade next week on a float dedicated to organ donors, manned by transplant recipients, he holds a photo album with a photograph of a woman named Carol who was his donor for a kidney. Beers was a construction and facilities manager who enjoyed backpacking and mountain climbing until his kidneys started to fail and he needed a transplant, which he received seven years ago. Credit: Don Boomer
There is no telling where John Beers would be today if a handful of complete strangers had not reconsidered their decision. It became, quite literally, a matter of life or death.
Certainly, Beers wouldn't be preparing to ride in the Rose Parade on New Year's morning, in front of hundreds of thousands of people along the route in Pasadena, and millions more on television, which beams the event to more than 200 international territories and countries.
"I can hardly wait," said Beers, 68. "I'm just excited. It's going to be a great experience."
In 2007, Beers' quality of life was slowly, steadily being eaten away by polycystic kidney disease. The condition had killed his father and eventually came to afflict him and four of his six siblings. An avid backpacker and mountain climber who now struggled just to shuffle around the block, he was on a waiting list for a kidney transplant.
He knew, he said somberly, that somebody would have to die to give him life.
On Tuesday, Beers will be standing up for organ-transplant recipients everywhere when he participates in the Rose Parade as a float rider for the Donate Life float, honoring donors, their families, and organ-transplant recipients.
There is no telling where John Beers would be today if a handful of complete strangers had not reconsidered their decision. It became, quite literally, a matter of life or death.
Certainly, Beers wouldn't be preparing to ride in the Rose Parade on New Year's morning, in front of hundreds of thousands of people along the route in Pasadena, and millions more on television, which beams the event to more than 200 international territories and countries.
"I can hardly wait," said Beers, 68. "I'm just excited. It's going to be a great experience."
In 2007, Beers' quality of life was slowly, steadily being eaten away by polycystic kidney disease. The condition had killed his father and eventually came to afflict him and four of his six siblings. An avid backpacker and mountain climber who now struggled just to shuffle around the block, he was on a waiting list for a kidney transplant.
He knew, he said somberly, that somebody would have to die to give him life.
On Tuesday, Beers will be standing up for organ-transplant recipients everywhere when he participates in the Rose Parade as a float rider for the Donate Life float, honoring donors, their families, and organ-transplant recipients.
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