Meredith's Story
Why we do what we doMeredith in her own words
Now, The Rest of Merediths Story
After her life-saving transplant, Meredith was extremely dedicated to promoting Organ and Tissue donation (Donate Life). While attending Sweet Briar College, Meredith would volunteer to share her story to civic groups, schools, sporting events…anywhere someone would give her a stage.
Meredith lived a very full life and reached many milestones. She graduated from Sweet Briar College in Virginia with honors, got married, pursued her career of advocating for organ donation and became an organ recovery specialist.
First serving as an intern for DCI Donor Services, Inc., in Nashville, Tennessee, Meredith confirmed her passion for working with people whose lives had been touched by organ donation. After graduation, she began her professional career with Tennessee Donor Services as the Public Education Coordinator in East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. She traveled across the regions sharing her story about organ donation, and encouraging everyone she met to “Sign Up and Save Lives.”
Wanting to do, even more, Meredith accepted a position in Richmond with LifeNet Health as an Organ Recovery Coordinator. There she traveled the country to bring needed organs back to the recipients.
Life of an organ recipient can be trying in the best of circumstances. Your body is trying to adapt to a cocktail of new medications; medications that try to prevent your body from attacking and terminating the new organ in your body. While some may struggle, many recipients return to living life with a fervor as never before. So often they have a greater respect and gratitude for life, and they push to live each moment to the fullest. Meredith was such a person.
Meredith packed more life into six years and made a significant difference in the lives of so many people. There are two thoughts that are constantly in the back of the mind of organ recipients; First is getting sick (because of their body is immunocompromised) and second is organ rejection…the worst is getting both. In Fall of 2017, Meredith caught the seasonal flu, which soon turned into sepsis and PCP (Pneumocystis Pneumonia).
Meredith lost her fight in July of 2018. In Death, as in life, Meredith continued to give, donating her corneas to improve the sight of another person and her lungs were donated to Vanderbilt Medical Center for research in the area of immunosuppression. To honor her life’s passion and work, Bruce Blessing created the Meredith Haga Foundation to continue the legacy of Love and Hope.
Sweet Briar Grad’s Viral Photo
“I am here because of an organ donor.” These are the words Sweet Briar College graduate Meredith Haga wrote on the black mortarboard she wore at the College’s 107th commencement on May 14. For her, nothing else could possibly express the emotion of that day. She was...
Meredith & Joey Gase – Racing for Organ Donation
Joey Gase has been one of the biggest proponents of Organ and Tissue Donation in professional sports especially with his Donate Life car circling the Xfinity and NASCAR tracks throughout the country. Joey's first hand personal relationship with organ donation has...
Wedding Bells for Sweet Briar Grad
She never expected to be famous. Meredith Haga just wanted to live. Even still, her graduation photo has been seen by more than 1.5 million people since it posted on Facebook last summer. The image features a simple message on top of her cap: I am here because of an...
Joey Gase takes Meredith’s Message to fans
Meredith Haga Fox was not shy about encouraging others to become organ donors—quite the opposite, she was passionate and determined. “She didn’t take ‘no’ very well,” remembers NASCAR driver Joey Gase, who became friends with Meredith during his work with Donate Life...