According to a letter I received from his father, Nicholas made the decision to become an organ donor. He was a teenaged boy and lived in Mississippi. He was a star running back on his high school football team and very involved in the Boy Scouts of America. Nicholas was a Life Scout and was working on his Eagle Scout requirements at his death.
Nicholas was inspired by another scout, Nicholas Green, who was shot on a family vacation in Italy when he was a boy. Because of the low level of donors in the time in that country and because his parents choose to donate his organs in a country where he was killed, the family gained great regard and appreciation nationally. Green’s father went on to write a book called “The Nicholas Effect” that was later made into a movie and was a great boost for organ donation in Italy and in America. Because of this effect, my donor Nicholas made the decision to share his life should the opportunity arise.
Although, I have never met my donor’s family, try to do my best in my life to make them proud of me and the way that I have cherished Nick’s liver. My theory has always been that I am living my life for two and twenty nine and a half years later I continue to do so. Without Nicholas and his family I would not be alive to share this story and I am thankful for them every day.