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 organ donor.
An honor student and stand-out athlete in high school, Meredith suddenly fell ill the summer between her junior and senior year. An auto-immune disease that attacks the kidneys had taken hold and Meredith quickly found herself in chemotherapy. The treatment worked for a while, but by the time she was to begin college at Sweet Briar in 2011, her kidneys failed.
Meredith was 18.
On dialysis, she waited as her bright future hung in the balance. She would need a new kidney to survive.