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An 'Angel' Within: North Carolina A&T's Brian Holloway has full gratitude for his kidney donor
by Barb Kowal – CoSIDA Director of External Affairs & Professional Development @austinbarb
March is National Kidney Month. Every year, more than 100,000 people in the USA are awaiting a kidney transplant. It’s difficult to find matches for many, and now, a “kidney chain” initiative sweeping the country is saving lives — including that of North Carolina A&T Associate AD/Communications Brian Holloway who received his second transplant on September 29, 2021.
"Today Show" segment broadcast of the kidney chain
March is national kidney month
, but five months ago - September 29, 2021 - was a personal “kidney day” for Brian Holloway as he successfully underwent a SECOND major life-saving kidney transplant, courtesy of a woman he calls “his angel.”
Holloway is the veteran Associate Athletics Director for Communications at his alma mater, North Carolinia A&T in Greensboro. He has been fighting kidney disease since his initial diagnosis in 2010. On dialysis and undergoing lots of testing for a few years, his kidney was in failure when he received his first transplant in 2015.
As happens sometimes, the tranplanted kidney began failing and completely was rejected in May 2019 — right as COVID-19 had swept the nation. That started Holloway on a grueling two-year journey as he cotinued to battle the disease.
“When I first got diagnosed a few years ago, I kept the information to my family as I didn’t want a lot of people to know, due to the demanding job," he said. "I didn’t want anyone to think I could not handle my responsibilities. But as time progressed, I knew I needed to open up, not be hesitant or ashamed that I was undergoing treatment, as more people need to know about kidney disease, or heart disease, all diseases. Awareness needs to be amped up. People need to understand that dialysis centers are full. More than 100,000 people each year are on a kidney transplant list — it’s overwhelming.”
Holloway’s recent journey culminated with success last September when he underwent a successful second kidney transplant in a Winston-Salem hospital. The kidney itself came to North Carolina with its own remarkable story as part of a national kidney donation chain.
“My journey fighting kidney disease started 12 years ago, and after my first new kidney was rejected in May 2019, that forced me back on dialysis,” noted Holloway. “For the next two years, I did dialysis four times a week at home. Each treatment took three and one-half hours of me being hooked up to the machine. I have so much appreciation for my wife Jennifer who served as my nurse. She held down a full-time job as a minister while assisting me with those almost four-hour treatments.”
As a typical athletic communications professional, Holloway persevered and found a way to manage his job in trying circumstances.
“As a full-time sports information director, working from home, you can imagine the difficulty in doing these treatments,” he said. “Yes, it was a tough break, but being remote during COVID, it actually helped. As I was hooked up to the machine and all the needles, I learned how to finagle things to attend to emails, edit videos, do graphics, talk to our staff and coaches.
I could set my times of when I got on the machine. We might not get on until late evening some days, and many times we’d get off the machine at 2 AM. It wasn’t ideal, as sports stop for no one, but the dialysis was lifesaving. That is all that mattered to me and my family. It was such a heavy responsibility for Jennifer, and I was overjoyed to give her a break when the transplant happened. ”
Holloway’s kidney came from a woman named Lisa who resides in Michigan. It arrived courtesy of a "kidney chain" which creates opportunities for endless recipient-donor pairings.
The chain starts with an altruistic donor — someone who wants to donate a kidney out of the goodness of his or her heart. That kidney will then be transplanted into a recipient who had a donor willing to give a kidney - but who was not a match to that patient. Within this complex chain donation medical network, the kidneys find their way to compatible recipients.
“I got into a kidney chain a year earlier, in October 2020, when a church member wanted to donate to me, but he wasn’t a perfect match," Holloway said. "This church member, who wants to stay anonymous, entered the crossmatch chain program in January 2021. His kidney went to Ohio and the dominoes happily started to fall. Because this person was willing to get into the program, I received a kidney from Michigan. There were 12 transplants in this remarkable cross-matching.”
The Michigan donor, Lisa, found her motivation to donate also through a church connection.
“Although he hesitated at first due to the gravity of the request, someone from Lisa’s church had put a kidney donation on their ‘wish list,’ said Holloway. “Lisa decided to get tested, but wasn’t a perfect match for him – and got into the chain.”
In the kidney chain since October 2020, good news came to Holloway in August of 2021.
“I found out I was getting a kidney in August, but, as always with this disease, you temper your expectations,” noted Holloway. “You are always doing blood work and more blood work, tissue matching, and things don’t always work out. This time, it did.”
After the successful transplant in September, Holloway’s health took an immediate uptick.
Less than two months after his September transplant,
Holloway appeared on a Today Show segment via a virtual interview on January 6. NBC correspondent Kate Snow's remarkable story centered on organ donors who do not have local matches and agree to donate to a patient at another hospital, creating the donor chain. The story was introduced by NBC Today show co-host Craig Melvin who said, “This is the story about what happens when people pay something forward over and over — until that first good deed comes all the way back around.”
“I did not find out who my donor was until the Today Show interview, and it was such a beautiful moment," Holloway said sofly, recalling the emotional TV story segment. "All I knew was that my kidney was from a 40-year-old female from Michigan. On that live NBC interview, when we all appeared on the screen together, the tears started flowing from everyone in this first-time meeting.”
Holloway’s words during the NBC interview were full of emotion.
"Bless you, thank you so much," Holloway told his donor, Lisa. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I've been waiting to see what my angel looks like, and it's an honor to finally see you."
When asked about his health today, Holloway noted that “So far so good. I’ve had no big issues. I take a lot of medications every day to avoid rejection. That’s my life. I’ll take that over sticking a needle in my arm any day."
Holloway was asked if he has connected again with Lisa.
“I reached out to the company that did the program to have permission to reach out to her and have corresponded with her. Not every donor wants to connect. Lisa did give us permission to email herself and her husband. As the spring season comes to a close, the plan is to reach out again.
Honestly, what do you say when someone hands you a live-giving gift except say thank you again and again to share your gratitude?,” he finished.
Back full-time to the office and into the swing of North Carolina A&T athletic competition, Holloway is grateful to be back and work with his staff of three. Formerly a one-person office, over the last several years he's seen the athletic communications office increase to a department of four.
“I send a big thank you to our Athletics Director, Earl Hilton III, for recognizing the need to expand our resources and staff in athletic communications over the last few years,” Holloway said. “Imagine being on dialysis and running a one-man SID office. He is elevating our athletics program and I am grateful that I now have three others to help do our storytelling with assistant directors Will Toman and Jacob Prichett and director of creative content Erin Mizelle.”
Speaking for gratitude, Holloway offers more thanks to volunteers like those on the kidney chain and implores more people to give back and volunteer their time and themselves.
“You understand that someone has to give up their lives and die, or someone has to give of themselves, to receive a kidney,” Holloway said. “It humbles you if you get a kidney. You understand the blessing you’ve received.”
“If you can change someone’s life for the better, please volunteer. Give an organ. Give blood, give bone marrow. If you can save a life, try and save a life. Or, work in your community to give of yourself, and make the world a better place to be in. You have no idea how much you will change someone’s life.”
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