MOULTRIE, Ga – “If I could help save somebody and have them not go through what I went through, I knew I had to at least try.” This was the thought Heather Bryant of Moultrie had when she heard of Douglas, Ga. native, Mark Lott’s fight on Facebook. 

Bryant and Lott were complete strangers, both were parents, both living their own separate lives. Bryant, a stay-at-home mother, and Lott, a business owner; each with their own family and not a single person connecting the two. That was, until Bryant saw a wholesome Facebook post.

In 2006, Lott was diagnosed with IgA nephropathy, which is an autoimmune kidney disease that damages the kidneys through an abnormal buildup of proteins. It was just something he lived with until a doctor’s visit in December of 2020 to get some routine blood tests changed everything.

“I found out that I was in total renal failure,” Lott said in an interview Wednesday. “I was quickly put on dialysis treatments, three days a week, three and a half hours apiece.”

His health rapidly declined throughout 2021.

“I lost about 100 pounds in a year. I just didn’t have an appetite for anything… I really didn’t notice but my family could. I wasn’t well. My color was off, I was sunken and I was losing weight so quickly,” Lott said. 

It was clear that Lott had few options: he’d either need a kidney transplant or he wouldn’t make it.

His wife, Michele, made a simple Facebook post asking for help that led to an “overwhelming response.”

“Within the first week, we had 100 people who were wanting to get screened to see if they could help. People from all over. Even some from other states,” Lott said.

That’s when Bryant came across the post.

She had already been a registered donor for the Be The Match Foundation which is a nonprofit bone marrow registry. She had originally gotten involved with it due to the sudden passing of her father, Brian Sadler.

“He was only 50 when he passed from a heart attack,” she said. “That kinda broke me. It was just sudden and there was nothing that I or anybody else could do.”

But when she scrolled through Facebook and found Mark’s story, she knew she had to do something. 

“Doing anything with Be The Match and eventually everything with Mark, I knew if I could help save somebody and have them not go through what I went through, I knew I had to at least try.”

After a variety of tests, screens, prods, pokes and conversations Bryant and Lott were confirmed to be a perfect blood and tissue match. Mark was on the way home with Michele from a vacation in Savannah, Ga. when he noticed his wife acting “very secretive.”

“We were on the way home from Savannah. She kept taking these phone calls and her phone was just going buzz, buzz, buzz. I was thinking, ‘What in the world is going on?’ When we finally made it back home there were all these cars in the driveway. She told me they were throwing an ‘impromptu birthday party’ for me. I thought it wasn’t that crazy because my birthday was about a month before,” Lott said.

Before arriving, he had never met Bryant in person. 

“I kinda knew what she looked like because we had seen pictures and we had chatted but we had never spoken in person. But I kept looking at her. I knew who she was so I kinda guessed why she was there… I was just speechless,” Lott said.

Bryant and Michele had gathered Mark’s family to officially announce that Bryant would be donating her kidney to Mark.

A dream which began on July 5, 2021 for Bryant was quickly becoming a reality. After announcing she was officially a match in November of 2021, she and her donor advocate from Emory University Hospital, where the surgery was to take place, moved into action.

“Even after all those tests to match, you have to do some more tests like blood work, a 24 hr. urine sample, x-ray, an EKG. There’s so much more that goes into it. They want to make sure you’re healthy enough to give whatever you’re donating up,” Bryant said. “You are in constant contact with your advocate, there’s panels of doctors who review your case, they have to make sure you’re of sound mind and you’re not being pressured. There’s just so much,” Bryant said. 

Lott was going through similar testings but he said he “didn’t have that bad.”

“It wasn’t that bad for me,” Lott laughed. “Aside from driving back and forth from Atlanta, whenever they needed me, I was there.”

Even though Bryant had “donor’s rights” to the surgery date, she wanted everything done as quickly as possible.

“‘I want it done today,’ is what I told the advocate when all the tests were done,” Bryant laughed. 

The surgery, originally scheduled in March, was moved up to January 18, 2022. 

After a total of seven and a half hours of surgery for both Bryant and Lott, it was ruled that the transplant was a success. Both were cleared to go home within the week. Lott had to stay within easy access of Emory University for “about six weeks.”

“They have to monitor you and keep running tests. They want to make sure that the organ is not going to be rejected. But it wasn’t too bad. I have an old pull-behind (camper) so my wife and I just stayed up in Stone Mountain,” Lott laughed. 

As of March 24, the date of this report, no complications have arisen from either surgery. In fact, both feel that “not much has changed.”

“I didn’t have many restrictions after the surgery,” Bryant said. “I’m pretty much the same, just a little lighter I guess.”

Lott agreed saying, “There really isn’t much of a difference in where I was before I got sick and where I am now. I’m not supposed to lift anything over 10 pounds for six months then nothing over 20 pounds for another six months. They also don’t want me to eat grapefruit. I love grapefruit, I used to eat it every day… Other than that stuff I really have just been getting better.”

Bryant, Lott and their families now talk “in some form or fashion” every single day.

“You know it’s like I gained a family I didn’t know I had,” Bryant said. “There’s no amount of time, money or love I could give that would compare to what I was able to give Mark.”

“She saved my life,” Lott said. “I don’t know how much longer I would have lasted but God sent her to me. There’s nothing I could ever do that could compare.”

Now, they both want to spread their story to encourage others to become live donors. 

“Kidney disease is a silent killer. Nine out of 10 people don’t even know they have it until it’s almost too late,” Lott said. “We need people like Heather. We need living donors in whatever capacity that may be.”

Bryant echoed this saying, “It’s easy to get involved. It’s something just about anybody can do.”

If you would like to become a live donor you can look into the Be The Match Foundation, donatelife.net or the Emory Living Donor Kidney Program, all of which are recommended by Bryant.