When Miranda was 9 years old, her mother went into kidney failure and started a life on dialysis. She watched her mom struggle to raise 6 kids, take care of a home, and maintain her physical and mental health. As the oldest child, she also saw how it effected her 5 younger siblings. The constant worry of losing their mom was very real and difficult navigate.

In October 2010, Miranda’s brothers underwent a kidney transplant in which one brother donated a kidney to the other brother. It’s been 10.5 years and they are bother doing well.

On August 19, 2013, Miranda’s youngest sister did the same for her. Unfortunately two years later, on October 4, 2015, her body rejected the kidney and she began dialysis. She went to a dialysis center for hemo dialysis via a catheter in her jugular 3x per week for 7 months. She switched to peritoneal dialysis for another 18 months. This required connecting to a machine via a tube in her abdomen for 10 hours every single night in order to stay alive and take care of her four kids. 

After 2 years she did finally receive a call for a match from a deceased donor. It was a high risk match, but she accepted it gratefully knowing she may not get another chance. Miranda has an antibody level of 100% which translates into her body rejecting 100% of potential donors. According to her transplant team, this match was 1 in a million, finding another would require a miracle. 

Now with her new kidney she has begun living her life fully again and that includes physical feats that were once impossible for her; such as hiking. She has set a goal to climb Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the contiguous United States, on July 5th. While doing so she is raising funds for @UNOSnews, the organization in charge of allocating organs and tissues to those in need. 

As you can imagine, climbing a mountain is a huge challenge! Miranda has to fight against the side effects from her anti-rejection medications as well still having low kidney function, including; muscle loss, tendon and soft tissue damage, bone loss, low blood pressure, edema, insomnia, and fatigue. 

But she is determined to do the things she loves and to not waste her precious gift. She also wants to help her friends still waiting for organs to receive their matches as well so that they too can stop waiting for an organ and start living the life that’s waiting for them.