MHF has Camp O Covered

Meredith Haga Foundation donated 100 quilts to DCI Camp Okawehna campers this past June! The foundation donated quilts to campers to stay warm and comfortable during their dialysis treatments.

One of Meredith’s goals was to provided blankets to dialysis patients to keep warm during treatment.

Today, we fulfill hergoal by providing blankets to dialysis centers

6th year KidneyVersary Celebration at The Grill

Since 2019, the Meredith Haga Foundation has held a fundraiser in Richmond, VA to remember and celebrate the living kidney donation of Bruce to Meredith.

We would like to thank all who attended and a big THANK YOU to our sponsors and partners.

The Grill, ARCO, Gary Martin Real Estate, Trent Corp, DLA Promotions, Ellen Davis Creative, Children’s Museum of Richmond, Richmond Flying Squirrels, Liverpool Los Angeles, The Shops at 5807, Fall Line BBQ, Starlight Distillery, and Stone Ridge Farms.

Introducing our 2025-2026 Board of Directors

Join us at The Grill (at Libby & Patterson) on Thursday, August 29, 2024, to support
the Meredith Haga Foundation!

Enjoy a fantastic evening while raising funds for living organ donors. Your presence and generosity will make a life-saving difference. 

Our annual kidney transplant celebration honors the day when Bruce selflessly gave Meredith one of his kidneys and saved her life. Today we not only remember and celebrate Bruce and Meredith, but all of the living organ donors that give a piece of themselves to save a life of another. Your generosity truly helps save lives!

We will hold a Raffle and Silent Auction with fantastic selection of items from:

In 2023, there were a reported 6,950 living organ donor transplants.  According to the reported data, 33% of the living donations were from and to biological related, family.  However, surprising 54% were reported to be non-biologically related.

What would motivate a person to become a living organ donor?  If it was to save the life of a family member, most of us would probably hesitate, but would at least get tested to see if they could save a life.  But what about donating an organ to friend or even a stranger?  

There is no financial reward for the donor, and in fact it will cost a living donor money.  There are laws that prevent the selling of human organs, in the USA, Canada and Mexico.  And not every hospital can perform organ transplants and there are just 250 transplant centers in the USA.

We spoke to two living donors, Cheyenne and Charles, and this is what they told us:

Why would a person become a living organ donor? 

Cheyenne: “I didn’t have an “aha!” moment that made me decide to do it. It just came so naturally.  Everyone deserves a chance at life, and I couldn’t pass up not being that person who stepped up.”

Charles: “If you see someone drowning, and you can swim, why wouldn’t you save them.  That’s the way I thought of donating a kidney.”

Tell us about the process and what you went through.  Did you have to take much time off work prior to the donation surgery?

Charles: “I missed a fair amount of work…Testing was three hours away from home, so I had to take a day of work to get tested and the various doctors’ appointments.”

How long did it take from the time you were tested to the time of surgery?

Charles: “It was seven months from the time I was originally tested to the day of donation surgery.  In fact, the surgery took place on Valentine’s Day 2024.”

Cheyenne: “It was less than 90 days, I think, from start to finish. I reached out the first week of January and was on the surgery table March 25th. (No thanks to my pushy and insistent suggestions at every doctor’s appointment)”

Did you have second thoughts about donating?

Cheyenne: “This wasn’t something I ever thought twice about, to me, this decision was easier than picking what movie I wanted to watch or what I wanted to eat. I think I thought more about what I wanted to eat AFTER surgery over actually HAVING it.”

Charles: “The person that received my kidney had posted on Facebook that he needed a kidney transplant.  People commented that they would keep him in their prayers, but not one person offered to be a donor.  That just floored me.  I never had a second thought.  I wasn’t even nervous about the surgery or recovery.  I was more worried about missing trash pickup than I was about the surgery.”

Was your employer supportive of what you were doing?

Charles: “Yes.  I am a diesel mechanic and a volunteer firefighter.  I never had any trouble getting the time off during the testing stage.  I was able to take time off I needed to recover post-transplant, however I must say that I am excited to get back to work.”

Cheyenne: “I was hired three weeks prior to my surgery.  In my interview, I was asked “name a time you went above and beyond for a client?” and I responded with “I’m donating a kidney to my personal training client’s wife, does that count??” I got the job.”

How was your recovery?  Have you had any problems or issues?

Cheyenne: “I was back to working out within 1.5 weeks, I did a light leg workout. I did my first Brazilian Ju-Jitsu open mat at my 3-week mark and finally returning to softball at my 4-week mark with no complications at all.”

Charles: “Not at all.  This whole experience has been amazing.  I am normally a positive and happy person, but seeing the recipient and his daughters after the surgery was an unbelievable feeling. It has been a total overwhelming happy experience.”

We are sad to report that the foundation has lost a great friend, and supporter; and with his passing the world lost “one of the good ones, a truly amazing person. “

Bryan Kelly Miller (Kelly), after receiving a kidney from his sister in 2010, helped Bruce and Meredith navigate their own living kidney transplant just two years later.

Kelly battled health issues ever since he was just five years old when he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.  At 23, he suffered his first heart attack and had open heart surgery.  With all the “bad luck” that he dealt with regarding his health, Kelly never lost his love for life.  He appreciated every minute of every day and never slowed down or felt sorry for himself.

Kelly was the type of person that never met a stranger.  He greeted everyone with a smile that was larger than life.  He would take the time to listen and would do anything for anybody.  As Bruce says, “he lived right.  He was a good man, a good Christian, a good husband, and a good friend.  I never heard him say a bad word about anybody or even cuss.”

Kelly loved the outdoors and all that his home of Northeast Tennessee had to offer.  He was a better than average golfer and played golf in the Transplant Games.  He enjoyed the solitude of nature, as he fished the various lakes and rivers and streams of the area.  He taught Meredith how to shoot skeet/clays.

We had the pleasure of dining with Kelly just a month before his unexpected death.  He was full of life, recalling all sort of stories about his long friendship with Bruce and Meredith, with Bruce adding the color commentary.  It was more than entertaining.  Kelly also shared that he was again in need of a kidney transplant, however this time he faced an uphill battle as a couple of transplant centers denied listing him.  He was back on dialysis, a treatment that he accepted he could be on for the rest of his life.  As he spoke that night, Kelly never shared a negative thought or word about his current state of life, but rather displayed a “never give up attitude” and glowing smile.  No one at the table that night ever envisioned that that day was so close.

Thank you, Bryan Kelly Miler, for your friendship and sharing your life with us.  You my friend will never be forgotten.

Laura travelled from her home in Montana to Tennessee to be a living kidney donor for her son.  Never question a mother’s love for her children.