Less than a year after donating a kidney, a Loudoun County man ran the New York City Marathon Sunday.
Despite completing 10 marathons in the past, “This is the first full, 26.2-mile marathon I’ve done since the surgery,” Brent Miller said.
In January, Miller got his family’s support to donate one of his kidneys to a family friend – Mary Davis, an Ashburn mother of four.
"A kidney transplant is not a cure, necessarily, but it's a means of getting your life back," Davis said.
She has battled kidney disease most her life and went on dialysis about two years ago. In desperate need of a transplant, Davis found that no one in her family was a suitable donor. Miller and his wife both got tested and learned he was a perfect match.
"His 6-year-old screamed, 'Daddy can I tell her? Can I tell her?'” Davis recalled. “And Brent said, 'Go ahead, tell her.' And she yells, 'My daddy's going to give you a kidney.'"
Kidney disease affects 26 million people in the United States. Last year, 17,000 received a transplant. But more donors are needed, Davis said.
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"If a person was to donate a kidney, and if something went wrong with their kidney, they're bumped up to No. 1 on the list," she said.
And Miller says he’s almost as fast as he was before the surgery.
"I want people to know that you can do a great thing for someone else, whether you know them or not, and still continue with a normal, everyday life," he said.
