Resource Newsletter Archive
Full Circle
At the annual donor recognition ceremony, Candy Wells (left), the Tissue Services's hospital services supervisor, greets Patti Graham, whose only son, Christopher, was a donor in 1999 after his death at age 23.
On October 2, 2004, the Turnbull family—like many other donor and recipient families in the Northwest—attended the annual donor recognition ceremony held by the Northwest Tissue Services and Northwest Lions Eye Bank at the Newcastle Golf and Country Club. This date was especially meaningful to the Turnbulls because it was exactly one year after Matt's transplant surgery.
“It was like coming full circle,” says Joanne Turnbull, who spoke movingly at the ceremony about how tissue transplant had helped Matt. “I was reduced to tears when I looked out at the donor families and thought about what they had gone through. I just tried to say, ‘Thank you.'”
At one point, the family met the mother of a donor; her son would have been about Matt's age. “She said her son's name was also Matthew,” says Joanne, “and that Matt looked like him. My husband said, ‘Would you like to hug our Matt?'” and she said, ‘Could I?' It was very touching.”
Matt also appreciated being able to talk to another recipient at the gathering. “You're not the same person after something like this,” he says. “You just see differently. It's hard to explain. So it was good to talk to someone else who had experienced that.”
“It was very healing,” says Joanne. “This is such a valuable gift; many people don't realize how just one person can help so many other people. We are so lucky.”