No family should have to navigate this journey alone.

Raquel Givens Jones knows what it feels like to disappear. Diagnosed with lupus in 2005, she lived for years with kidney issues that, against the odds, held steady — until a single hospital stay changed everything. A recommended biopsy turned into an untreated infection, and within two weeks her kidney function was gone. Dialysis three times a week followed, and with it a grief she had not been prepared for: anger at her body, disappointment in herself for ignoring her inner voice, and a depression that made her feel like she was fading into a fog.

In October 2015, her mother gave her a kidney. Raquel says she knew the moment she woke up that she was new. "I knew that my life had been shined on, and I was going to be able to take my life experiences to the highest potentials." The vitality she had lost came rushing back, and with it, abilities she never thought she would access again.

She had resisted transplant for a long time. A lifelong believer in natural healing with a long list of medication allergies, she did not want to be bound to a regimen of drugs. What changed was her understanding of purpose. "Everything that happened to me, happened for me, and my highest good," she says. Along the way she has met people who would, in her words, "give gold for a kidney" — friends walking the same road of lupus and kidney failure she once walked. She prays for them. She wishes she had a kidney to give.

Today, as a blogger and life coach, Raquel uses her platform to remind recipients that the healing journey does not end on transplant day — if anything, it becomes more imperative to stay in alignment with health, with love, and with one's own inner voice. She wants people to see a soul filled with peace when they see her, and to know that organ donation is one of the most powerful invitations a human being can extend to another.

"How can I not give," she asks, "when I was given life twice?"

Transplant was never an abstract concept in Tiffani Martin's family. Renal failure had touched several of her loved ones, and kidney transplant had become a familiar word at the dinner table long before it became her own story. What began as awareness eventually grew into hope — once the family understood the full process and the life-changing benefits that organ donation could deliver.

In 2016, Tiffani became a recipient of a double organ transplant.

She is honest about the fear she carried into it. Watching family members endure long waits on dialysis, and absorbing the heavy stories that move through media coverage of transplant, left her deeply apprehensive. It was only once they were pursuing the process head-on that she discovered the depth of education, support, and community available to patients and families willing to step into it.

Her message to anyone considering the journey is rooted in stewardship. Receiving an organ is not a finish line; it is the beginning of a new kind of discipline. Lifestyle, consistent communication with physicians, and care for mental and emotional well-being all become non-negotiable. "You have to be a great steward of the gift you have received," she says, "but you can live a very fulfilling life if you do."

Tiffani is especially passionate about living donation. One kidney, freely given, can extend a healthy life to someone who is running out of time — and the donor can keep living a full, healthy life of their own. Paired exchange programs in many healthcare systems mean that even if you are not a match for your loved one, your gift can still set off a chain that reaches them. "As a living donor, you can be that extended lifeline for someone," she says, "and actually witness the power of your giving with your own eyes."

As CEO of Jancynco, Tiffani channels that same spirit into her leadership and advocacy: urging others to register, to learn, and to become catalysts for change in communities where the donation conversation has too often gone unheard.