A Pierce County woman has donated her kidney to a complete stranger, marking a remarkable act of generosity.
Alisha Beesinger, motivated by her research, decided to become a living donor and underwent surgery in June to donate her kidney to Navy veteran Jim Ellis, whom she had never met.
“It was a perfect match. A perfect match. Alicia was my perfect match. So God sent her to me,” said Jim Ellis, the kidney recipient.
“You have this gift inside of you are you ever going to really end up being able to use it, are you just going to live your whole life holding on to it,” said Alisha Beesinger, explaining her decision to donate.
Beesinger traveled to Virginia for the surgery and returned to work at a local church about a month later, highlighting the relatively minimal recovery time for living donors.
The donation was facilitated by DOVE, an organization that matches kidney donors to veterans in advanced stages of kidney disease, aiming to address the higher incidence of kidney disease among veterans due to exposure to toxins.
Sharyn Kreitzer, founder of DOVE and a kidney donor herself, noted that many Vietnam veterans were exposed to Agent Orange, impacting their kidney function.
Roughly 100,000 people are on the national waiting list right now who are in need of a kidney.
Dr. David Bruno, director of the transplant center at VCU Health, where Ellis’s transplant took place says the success rate is much higher when looking at living donors versus deceased donors.
“Living donation is one of the most remarkable things,” Bruno said. “It is an absolutely selfless act. And those are rare, rare things in this world.”
But Beesinger shrugs off the praise, saying it was simply the right thing to do.
Beesinger and Ellis are forever bonded.
They call each other family, and Beesinger says Ellis updates her on his new kidney, which she had affectionately named Lois’ prior to the surgery: “So, Jim will now text me ‘Lois is doing good. Lois just had her checkup. She’s hanging in there.’ So that’s been fun.”
This was the 58th transplant facilitated by DOVE, and both Beesinger and Ellis commemorate their connection by wearing hoodies with the number 58.
By the end of 2025, Dove will have successfully facilitated 80 kidney transplants.
To learn more about the living donor program through DOVE, please visit their website.
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