Faces of the Games
MELISSA CARTER, 35
Atlanta, Georgia
It's 9 a.m., and Melissa Carter's black Nike sports watch alarm beeps. Time for her to grab her 12-pill cocktail. It's a regimen she's gone through twice a day, every day, since November 2002 when she received a kidney transplant. Melissa Carter's voice and face are familiar to Atlantans as a member of the high-profile Q100 "Bert Show." Known for her quick wit and fast on-air comeback, Melissa's image has showed up on billboards, TV commercials and at the head of Atlanta's Gay Pride parade where she served as grand marshal.
Although most people struggle through medical ordeals privately, Melissa's illness was followed by thousands of listeners, a handful of news outlets and even the Georgia governor. Her kidney problems began in 1997, when tests revealed that body aches, congestion and high blood pressure were signs of kidney disease. Medication was prescribed to slow down the disease's progress. But it continued, and Melissa grew self-conscious about the dark circles under her eyes, her fatigue and how she had radically altered her diet. Despite routinely discussing her private life on the air, no one at the station knew she was really sick.
As the disease progressed, it became impossible to hide her condition and she told to her boss and the show's cast. They decided to make Melissa's condition an ongoing part of the broadcast. By the week before Christmas 2001, Melissa told listeners about her first dialysis treatment and that her name had been put on the waiting list for a new kidney. The treatments were difficult for Melissa and she worried she might grow too sick to be a good candidate for a transplant. “The idea of one day being well enough to compete in the National Kidney Foundation Transplant Games inspired me to keep going while I was on dialysis,” recalls Melissa. It was the mental image I clung to when I felt so sick that I feared I would never recover.” Although listeners offered to donate, it was a cousin, Pam, whose offer she accepted.
In November 2002, two weeks following a successful surgery, a familiar voice returned to Q100 airwaves via a phone call. "I'm feeling really good," Melissa told listeners from her apartment.
This June, Melissa will travel to Louisville, where she will celebrate her gift of life with other transplant recipients and donors at the National Kidney Foundation 2006 Transplant Games, where she and thousands of transplant athletes will compete in a variety of Olympics-style competitions. Melissa will compete in the bowling, tennis and golf competitions and walk the 5-K with her living donor, her way of celebrating and showing thanks for her second chance at life.
