Click here to view video and full article

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — April is National Donate Life Month. It highlights the life-saving impact of organ donors.

For one Mid-South family, that gift meant more time after years of dialysis.

For 5 years and 40 days, Memphis woman Gay Hannah’s life revolved around dialysis, strict limits and waiting.

Waiting for a call that could save her life.

“The doctor came in and was like, ‘Man, if it was 30 minutes later and you didn’t get her here in enough time, she would not be here,'” Hannah’s son, Matthew, said.
In 2015, what she thought was exhaustion turned into a medical emergency.

Doctors realized she was minutes from death — and diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure. She started dialysis three times a week, a grueling process that kept her alive but limited her life.

But days before her 60th birthday, the call came.

“To wake up after 5 years and 40 days and realize that I’ve been given a second chance to live,” Gay said, “that every breath that I take, I can’t take it for granted.”

More than 100,000 people in the United States are currently waiting for a transplant, most of them for kidneys.

Becoming a donor is simple.

You can sign up online or when you renew your driver’s license.

Hannah says the most important step is making sure your family knows your decision.

Now five years removed from her transplant, Hannah is happy, healthy and using her journey to inspire others, even writing a book about her experience.