WACO, Texas — Waco resident Matt Shane is getting back on his bike for the first time in over a year.
“I was very active running, biking, triathlon…” Shane said.
Shane was also an active blood donor and donated every chance he got up until his childhood diagnosis caught up with him.
“I was diagnosed with a genetic chronic kidney disease when I was 5,” he said. “It didn't kick in until 2014.”
Doctors warned Shane he had entered stage three kidney failure.
“I did an ironman in 2015 and then I hung up my shoes for a while just because I didn't want to risk damaging anything else or getting any worse,” he said.
But the day he decided to suit up one more time, his health took a turn for the worse.
“I was in a really bad mountain bike wreck in Cameron Park,” he said. “I broke a bunch of bones and that put me into stage five kidney failure.”
Thankfully, Shane was able to receive a live kidney transplant from his nephew in addition to life saving blood transfusions.
“During that time, I had a lot of blood given to me from people that donated blood,” Shane said.
After undergoing an additional live kidney transplant, Shane says his health is finally back on track.
“M kidney function is back up to 90 plus percent,” Shane said. “I'm feeling great!”
His full circle moment was not only made possible by his organ donors but also the generous amount of blood donations.
“The fact that I’m here today is because people have donated blood,” Shane said. I encourage anybody that is able to… please donate blood when you can.”
