Gift of Life Donor Program grants Pa. man 2nd chance at life

WILLOW GROVE, Pa. (CBS) — August is National Minority Donor Awareness Month, and right now, millions of people of color are on the transplant list for a new organ as one man shared his journey of survival.

Tuesday was the first time James Harris and Lee Detwiler had seen each other since Harris' kidney transplant in June. Detweiler was Harris' dialysis social worker.

Harris remembered how hard Detwiler worked to get him off treatment at DaVita Abington Dialysis in Willow Grove.

"I said, 'I'll go anywhere. I'll go to China. I'll go to India, [it] doesn't matter. I'll go anywhere,'" Harris said.

So, Detwiler got to work helping Harris search while he was on a nationwide transplant waiting list.

"James is one of the most remarkable people I know," Detwiler said, "and I never saw anybody work so hard trying to get a kidney."

That included asking friends and family who proved not to be a match and, with Detwiler's help, reaching out to local hospitals.

After three years, Harris finally found a match in New Jersey.

Christine Radolovic, chief clinical officer for the Gift of Life Donor Program , said that timeframe was typical for kidney recipients like Harris.

"Sixty percent of those that are waiting locally are from communities of color," Radolovic said.

Radolovic said that is partly because there are not enough matching donors of color. She said the program is working to overcome the myth that Black donors will not receive lifesaving treatment in a hospital.

"Everything is done in order to try to save their lives first," Radolovic said.

Now that a donor saved his life, Harris wanted other people of color to step up to save their neighbors.

"Because it tremendously changes someone's life," Harris said.