After receiving a life-saving kidney transplant, one Columbia woman is paying it forward and advocating for the power and importance of organ donation.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – After receiving a life-saving kidney transplant more than a decade ago, one Columbia woman is paying it forward and advocating for the power and importance of organ donation.
“I can’t express it enough,” Andrea Hill said. “Educate, educate, educate.”
Hill, who lives in Columbia, was diagnosed with kidney disease unexpectedly.
Her journey, grounded in faith, has changed her outlook on life.
“I lean on my faith,” she said. “If you lean on your faith and you trust in God, he will work any and everything out for you.”
The diagnosis came as a shock. It was something she never imagined happening to her.
“Once I prayed about it and I took it to the altar at my church, and I left it at the altar, I was okay with it,” she said.
Hill spent more than a year on the transplant waiting list, which is a relatively short wait compared to others.
She still remembers the Thursday afternoon 14 years ago when she got a call that a kidney was available, and the 90-minute drive from Columbia to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, where she would receive the transplant.
“I was just so excited, and I was calling everyone on the way to Charleston,” Hill said.
Her husband, who she described as her rock, took the drive.
Hill said her family, especially her daughters, stood by her every step of the way.
“My entire family, they embraced me,” she said. “I had family members that said, ‘I’ll get tested to see if I’m a match for you,’ and that says a lot.”
The kidney came from a 33-year-old man who died in a motorcycle accident.
Hill later learned that donor saved five lives.
“He will forever be a part of my heart because he was unselfish,” she said.
August is Multicultural Donor Awareness Month, a time to spotlight the critical need for organ and tissue donors within communities of color.
According to We Are Sharing Hope SC, South Carolina’s federally designated organ procurement organization, nearly 70 percent of people waiting for life-saving transplants in the state are from these backgrounds.
The disparity is real.
We Are Sharing Hope SC, which helps facilitate the gift of life, said there is a shortage of registered donors in part due to persistent misconceptions about the process.
“We really need to build the trust within these communities,” Krystal Cau, director of communications for We Are Sharing Hope SC, said.
One of the most common myths, according to Cau, is that being a registered donor could affect the quality of care a patient receives in an emergency. It is something Hill heard as well.
“That is so far from the truth,” she said. “Medical professionals are going to do their job and their responsibility. And an OPO, our organization, We Are Sharing Hope SC, is only a part of that once an individual is declared dead.”
The transplant gave Hill an entirely new perspective.
“We have to learn how to not be so uptight,” she said. “I’m more carefree now than I was then.”
Hill has found a new purpose in advocacy, volunteering regularly with We Are Sharing Hope SC and sharing her story.
“That’s the ripple effect,” Cau said.
Her message is simple and clear: a single decision to donate could save lives.
“You can’t take it up to heaven,” Hill said. “You don’t need it in heaven, so why not give it to someone on earth that needs it that’s here?”
In 2024, We Are Sharing Hope SC helped transplant a record 305 organs and enhanced more than 34,000 lives.
The organization ramps up its outreach efforts in the month of August, particularly in underserved communities, through health fairs and faith-based events.
For more information or to register as a donor, visit sharinghopesc.org .
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