Pennsylvania Credit Union Employee Receives Living Donor Kidney

Seven days before Christmas Day last year, Lorie Hagar, a senior consumer lending underwriter for the $302 million First Capital Federal Credit Union in York, Pa., got a morning call at work that would save her life.

Hagar, beset for years with a chronic disease that was causing her kidneys to fail, learned from the caller that an anonymous person agreed to donate a kidney.

“That was the best Christmas present I ever got,” Hagar laughed.

Nine years ago, Hagar was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. In February 2022, her doctor told her the disease had progressed to Stage 5, and that she needed a kidney transplant. Stage 5 means a patient’s kidneys are getting close to not working or may have already stopped working. The only treatment options include dialysis or a transplant, according to the American Kidney Fund in Rockville, Md., the nation’s leading nonprofit group that works to fight kidney diseases on all fronts.

While waiting for a living donor kidney, First Capital employees rallied behind Hagar.

First Capital SVP of Marketing Tara Houser Minetos and her team created a marketing plan to increase public awareness about the need for living kidney donors and in hopes of helping Hager find one.

In April 2023, First Capital launched a “Share Your Spare” marketing campaign, placing posters and yard signs at its branches. What’s more, Lamar Advertising gifted a billboard over four weeks to promote the campaign.

The credit union also invited the community to support its cause to help Hager find a living donor by visiting her Facebook and Instagram page, and a local television news station also aired Hager’s story.

On April 12, as they did the previous April, the First Capital staff wore blue and green to show their support for Hagar and to help increase awareness around the importance of organ donor registration. April is National Donate Life month.

The credit union staff, Hagar said, was absolutely amazing.

On Jan. 4, Hagar underwent kidney transplant surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Harrisburg. After she fully recovered from her surgery, Hagar returned to work.

“I’m doing well and it’s great to be back,” she said.

Hagar wrote a thank you letter to her anonymous donor expressing her deep gratitude for the person’s selfless act in providing her with the gift for a second chance to live her life.

“This did not just affect me, but it also affected my whole family,” she reflected. “I have a son who is 24 and someday I hope he will get married and have kids, and now I have a chance to be able to see that.”

Hagar hopes to meet her donor someday.

“I would like to thank the community, the First Capital team, my donor, my doctors and the folks at Donate Life for sharing my story, spreading the word, and ultimately helping me find a living kidney donor,” Hagar said. “The waiting was difficult, but it was worth the wait to find the perfect match for me.”

Every year, thousands of living donors donate a healthy kidney to a person who has kidney disease, saving them from years of waiting for a kidney from a deceased donor. Living kidney donation is becoming more common, with a record 6,860 living donors having donated a kidney in 2019, according to the National Kidney Registry in Greenwich, Conn., which facilitates living donor transplants. More than 100,000 people need a kidney transplant every year.

To learn more about how to become a living donor, visit the Donate Life America website.