"Organ donation is important. It gives me the quality of life that other people my age have. Everyone should donate. It saved my life. Others should be encouraged to donate." --Nick May

"My son, Nick May was born with a three chambered heart. Around five hundred children a year are born with Nick's particular type of heart birth defect. At five days old, Nick had his first heart surgery. He had another heart surgery at three months old and another just after turning one year old. A few months before Nick's second birthday, he was placed on the United Network of Organ Sharing list for a heart. After a six weeks wait, Nick received his new heart. That was nineteen years ago. Nick will soon turn twenty one.

Because of a heart transplant, Nick has graduated from high school and is now attending college, majoring in Sports Management. Nick played on his high tennis team and was the manager for the school football team. He has visited forty nine of the fifty states and spent time in Canada and thirteen countries in Europe. He's learned to drive, had girl friends, water and snow skis and he attended the PRO Bowl in 2008 and keeps a messy room. None of these things would have been possible without the gift of a heart transplant.

Organ donation is a heroic act. Just as a fireman runs into a burning building to save a life, that is the same thing a person does when he donates his organs. The donor gives someone life. Nick isn't just alive. He is living, getting the most out of life. Nick honors his donor by appreciating each and every day."

--Susan May

Nick's New Heart
www.susancmay.com