Faces of the Games

SANDY WEBSTER, 38

Kalaheo, Hawaii

The phrase a “family affair” has special meaning to Sandy Webster who received the gift of life twice, in the form of a new kidney, from her father first and then her husband. Webster was only 10 years old when doctors told her she had a rare disease, Heinloch-Schonlein Purpural, which attacks the kidneys. She received the first kidney from her dad in 1977 and went on to lead a normal and healthy life, which included finishing high school and college, marriage and the birth of a child.

Then her luck turned. The transplanted kidney that had functioned so well for decades failed. She needed a new one or she would have to undergo the grueling regimen of dialysis treatments. Her husband of 18 years came to her aid and donated one of his kidneys to her on Valentine’s Day in 1995. “I feel extremely lucky to have such an extraordinary family, and I draw strength from them and the many people I have met through competing in the World and U.S. Transplant Games,” Sandy says.

Sandy won gold at the 2004 U.S. Transplant Games in doubles tennis with her partner Abby Lorica, another kidney transplant recipient. “The transplant community is like a big family,” Sandy says. “Not only are the Transplant Games fun, but they also focus attention on organ donation and give us a way to show donors that we'll take care of ourselves and their gift of life.”

Sandy has attended more than seven Transplant Games, and looks forward to participating in the 2006 U.S. Transplant Games, because as she puts it, “when you look out at a crowd of thousands and thousands of people, and realize that everybody there has had a transplant–it is really an emotional moment. All of those people would not be there if it were not for the donors.”