‘They were watching him die.’ Ex-UK player donated kidney to save man she didn’t know.
It was on a school morning, four years ago in February, when former Kentucky Wildcats softball player Beth (Fogle) Burbridge found herself in the sweet spot for any mom.
Her two oldest sons were on the bus headed for elementary school. Her husband, Nick, was dropping the youngest of the couple’s three boys off at preschool while on his way to work.
Burbridge now had a mom’s greatest gift — some time to herself. While the ex-UK center fielder (1999-2002) scrolled through her Louisville neighborhood’s Facebook page, she came across a post that pricked her conscience. Ultimately, it led her to an act of generosity that likely saved the life of a man she did not know.
This weekend, when No. 17 Kentucky (25-10-1, 7-5 SEC) plays host to No. 7 Tennessee (31-5, 10-2 SEC) for a three-game softball series at John Cropp Stadium, it will be more than a crucial Southeastern Conference showdown of ranked rivals. In conjunction with the Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates, UK softball is treating the UT series as “Donate Life Weekend.”
The impetus behind UK’s weekend of promoting organ donation, Burbridge, gave one of her own kidneys to a stranger.
On that morning four years ago, Burbridge read on Facebook a desperate post from the parents of Jackson Alldaffer. The then-24-year-old had been suffering from a degenerative kidney condition since the age of 9. The situation had become increasingly dire and, because there was a genetic component to his disease, none of Alldaffer’s relatives could donate a kidney to him.
With their son’s life hanging in the balance, Jackson’s parents, Mindy White and Derek Alldaffer, were appealing for someone to step forward and offer to donate a kidney.
“They were slowly watching him die. There’s no way to sugarcoat that,” Burbridge says. “They knew at some point kidney failure would come up. The prognosis was not really good. He was just not in a good spot.”
As Burbridge, a health care informaticist by trade, scrolled through pictures of Alldaffer and his family on Facebook, she thought of her own three sons and the desperation she would feel as a parent if one of them were in a medical crisis and she could not do anything to help them.
“For this family to be hopeless in that way, it really moved me,” Burbridge says. “I thought about it all day.”
That night, after she’d put her kids to bed, Burbridge sat down with her husband, Nick, to tell him that she felt compelled to find out if she would be a match to donate a kidney to a young man who neither of them knew.
“I just told him I wanted to try to help this family,” Burbridge says. “Nick said, ‘I do not like this idea at all.’ And his concerns were very valid. He was concerned about me, about my health. And he was concerned about our kids, if I gave this gift away, what would happen if we needed it later for one of our children?”
Because there is no history of kidney disease on either side of their family, Burbridge says both she and her husband came to accept that the odds were remote that one of their children would ever need a kidney donation.
“Once we got past that, he was on board,” Burbridge says.
On April 5, 2019, Burbridge got definitive word she was “a match” and could donate a kidney to Alldaffer. She took celebratory cupcakes with her and visited each of Alldaffer’s parents to share the good news.
“To tell another parent you are going to be able to save the life of their son, that was a gift to me I wasn’t expecting,” Burbridge says. “I knew it would be emotional, but just to see, like, the years of this weight they had on them just lift, was incredible.”
On May 14, 2019, at the University of Louisville’s Trager Transplant Center, one of Beth Burbridge’s kidneys was extracted and implanted in the body of Jackson Alldaffer.
“Before I woke up from surgery, my kidney was already working for Jackson,” Burbridge says.
Since the transplant, Alldaffer has done well. “He’s done amazing,” Burbridge says. “He got a promotion in his career and moved out of state. I get a lot of texts and pictures of what he is doing. He goes on these amazing hikes with his dog. He’s living the life he should have been able to live the whole time.”
After her experience as a donor, Burbridge, 42, has become an advocate for organ donation. In seeking ways to promote awareness, the idea arose to seek the involvement of her old college softball program.
“I love the Kentucky softball program,” Burbridge says. “Though I didn’t play for Coach (Rachel) Lawson, she treats us all like family.”
Burbridge contacted another ex-UK player, Brittany Cervantes, now the softball program’s director of operations, to propose having a “Donate Life” game. After consulting with the UK coaches, Cervantes called back and offered up an entire series to promote organ donation.
So, this weekend, school-aged, organ-transplant recipients will throw out the first pitch for all three UK-UT games. There will be a booth dispensing information on organ donations. On Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Kentucky Blood Center will be conducting a drive on the plaza in between John Cropp Stadium and the Wendell & Vickie Bell Soccer Complex (to sign up to donate blood, click here).
“If one of my kids needed an organ and I couldn’t help, would I want somebody to step up and help me? Absolutely,” Burbridge says. “Well, how can you say ‘absolutely’ if you are not willing to step forward and help someone else.”
This story was originally published April 13, 2023 at 1:27 PM.
