CHARLOTTE — Traci Townsend is celebrating a major milestone almost a year after she receive both a heart and kidney transplant from the same donor.
Her health journey has been a long one. It began with thyroid cancer 15 yeas ago and a virus that led to heart failure.
“For 15, about 15 years, I was doing really well on medicine,” Townsend told Channel 9’s Elsa Gillis.
But two years ago, she was diagnosed with marginal zone lymphoma, and her heart started declining rapidly. Once her heart went, Townsend said so did her kidney due to the chronic kidney disease she’d been managing.
“Up until then, I worked every single day,” she said. “I struggled. I knew that I was having some issues, but I didn’t realize I was that sick.”
The mother and grandmother was in need of both a new heart and kidney.
Eventually, Townsend received the gift of life — a heart and a kidney from the same donor. One year later, she says she’s thriving.
“You definitely, you know, appreciate life a lot more because you know what you could have lost,” she said.
Townsend is set to walk in Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute’s annual Heart Transplant 5K Run/Walk Saturday. She’ll have her grandchildren by her side. The event raises critical funds for heart transplants and for patients who face financial barriers to care.