March 5, 2025
Hallmark, Healing, and Heartache: The Real Story Behind the Movie
What happens when a devastating diagnosis becomes a pivotal turning point in someone's life? In this episode, we explore the remarkable journey of Heather Krueger, who transformed adversity into her calling. Diagnosed with stage four liver disease just before her 25th birthday, Heather's strong faith and determination led her down a path where she was able to receive a living donation of a liver. However, Heather's story didn't end there. Her living donation ended up turning into a love story; a story that was picked up by Hallmark. Heather Krueger's story was behind the movie "Once Upon a Christmas Miracle."
However, unlike the love and glamour shown on screen, behind the scenes was a complete paradox. Heather's love story was on the rails at the time of the filming that ended in a subsequent divorce. Heather takes us, not only on an emotionally touching path, but also a path that will leave everyone feeling inspired, hope, encouraged, ambitious, and determined. Heather Krueger shows us that when life tries to knock you down, it is so important to get up on your feet and keep on fighting the good fight. After all, it is consistency and persistence that wins at the end. Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss future inspiring conversations!
00:00 - Introduction to On the Spectrum
26:34 - Welcoming Heather Kruger
42:35 - Heather's Inspiring Background
59:00 - The Diagnosis that Changed Everything
01:27:58 - The Search for a Living Donor
02:25:00 - The Transplant Journey
03:09:00 - Post
12:42:30 - Dealing with Media Fame and Real Life
23:16:00 - Heather's Vision for the Future
WEBVTT
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Hello everyone and welcome to today's episode of On the Spectrum with Sonia, where we discuss autism spectrum mental health challenges and highlight any inspirational stories where people have had to overcome any adversity and will leave people feeling loved, encouraged, connected and filled with hope, especially in a world that tries to disconnect us on a daily.
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Now, for all of you who are Hallmark lovers today, you are going to be thrilled with this episode because today we have Heather Kruger on our show.
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Heather Kruger is the on our show.
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Heather Kruger is the inspiration behind Once Upon a Christmas Tale, christmas Miracle, once Upon a Christmas Miracle, and it is she's an absolute inspiration in and of itself.
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Her story has been also, apart from Hallmark, has been featured on various magazines and news outlets.
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It's been on the ABC News Today show, bbc News.
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She's been on the Steve Harvey show, featured on the Steve Harvey show on CBS News.
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She also, in terms of publications, her story has been featured on Self, women's Health, cosmopolitan Reader's Digest, to name a few.
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So, without further ado, I want to say welcome, heather.
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Thank you so much for being here.
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Thank you for having me.
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How are you?
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I am great.
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So I have to ask you.
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People absolutely love Hallmark, okay, especially around Christmas and especially around watching the Christmas movies that come out of Hallmark, what was it like for you to have them make a movie based off your story, to have them?
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make a movie based off your story.
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So it was absolutely surreal when I saw Hallmark Channel pop up on my phone calling me.
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I thought it was a joke.
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I did not think that was for real.
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And they asked me based on like you said, you know me being in the media my story getting so much, so much attraction, with it being a living donation.
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So this was almost 10 years ago.
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So at that time living donation wasn't as a not popular that's not the right word but a common thing.
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So it got a lot of traction, like I said.
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So them calling me and wanting to make my story into a Hallmark movie.
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it really just like you, your upbringing because, for those who don't know so, once Upon a Christmas Miracle was based off of Heather's story of receiving a liver transplant, and Heather was only 25 years old when she received a stage four liver disease diagnosis where the only option for your childhood, your upbringing, like tell us a little bit about you, know life beforehand.
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Sure.
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So pretty normal childhood.
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I did soccer, I was in dance, I did cheerleading, from about fifth grade through my sophomore year of high school, fairly healthy.
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Both my parents of high school, fairly healthy.
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Both my parents, you know, very supportive.
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I had one younger sister, three years younger than me.
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She was in basketball varsity all four years, you know, no real health issues.
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So leading up to this diagnosis, it was very shocking because I was going to college, I wanted to be a nurse, I was in nursing school for a year I was working as a nursing assistant at a senior living facility and for about a year before my diagnosis the only symptoms I really had were fatigue and pain in the upper right quadrant of my stomach.
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So I thought, oh, maybe it's my gallbladder, maybe it's a hernia from lifting people, moving people.
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You know I'm only barely five feet tall.
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So I thought maybe that was, you know, something going on with that, because you know something going on with that.
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So also, when I was going to my primary care doctor and other specialists, you know they did CAT scans, they did ultrasounds, they did blood work and everything kept coming back normal.
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They said your gallbladder might be a little sluggish, but other than that, like everything looks fine and I'm like something isn't right, something like you know, you know your own body and I'm like not to deny the doctors, but like something is not right.
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And when I did finally get diagnosed, like you said it was, it was stage four non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, two weeks before my 25th birthday alcoholic fatty liver disease two weeks before my 25th birthday.
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And how did that diagnosis?
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finally come to light, Like what had happened.
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I kept ending up in the ER with a lot of pain.
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At that point it started becoming more intense, so they decided to do a liver biopsy.
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Through the liver biopsy they could determine what stage it was, what caused it, those types of things.
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And so they did the liver biopsy based on where they saw you having pain, where they were at one point where your pain was Okay, yes, and so it was two weeks, so you're turning 25.
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You got the Okay yes, and so it was two weeks, so you were turning 25.
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You got the diagnosis yes.
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What was going in your head at that time then, like, what were the thoughts going on?
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What were they saying, like, what was happening for you in terms of that?
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Like in terms of?
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you that Like in terms of you?
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So for me.
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I actually got the phone call about the diagnosis.
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The doctor told me over the phone that I was in stage four acute liver failure and that this was on a Sunday.
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She called me and that I had to come into the ER that Monday morning and she told me that she didn't think I was going to make it another three months.
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This was over the phone.
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Oh my gosh, yeah, I can.
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Shocking and devastating and just like the amount of like fear and like terror must have been.
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It was.
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It was, um, I think it was shock and I think it was like my reaction to her calling me with this news.
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I think my response was shock and also a bit of being younger and that feeling like you're invincible and also, at the time, like to be honest, the people that I was hanging out with weren't the best crowd.
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They were a little hard, and so when she told me this news, I laughed.
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I laughed at her and I said are you serious?
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And she's like Heather, I'm not joking, listen to me, I don't think you're going to make it another three months.
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And I had to get off the phone and then tell my parents, who were standing there, this news.
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So it was a moment I'll never forget.
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You know like your life flashes before you and you think you know you're barely 25 years old, you're in nursing school, you're doing the right things, you're just living a normal life.
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You never think that something like this could happen to you, especially when you never had any prior health issues.
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You're a social drinker, but you're not.
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You're not abusing anything you know like.
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So it was unreal.
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Oh my gosh, I can only imagine what that.
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You know what that was like.
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So tell me about like your parents reaction.
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Like you know, you said that the people you were hanging around with were hard at the time.
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So, like, what were people's reactions when you had shared with them your story, that that, that um, or that news, rather, that you just got?
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Um, my parents, surprisingly like um, I always say that mindset is the biggest thing.
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And even though I got that news and maybe I was a little delusional or feeling invincible or because of the people I was hanging around with maybe I was a little delusional or feeling invincible or because of the people I was hanging around with, like, hardened a bit, at that point in my life I never believed that I was going to die.
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I never believed the doctors and the statistics you know the chances of me getting a transplant and my parents also.
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They never planned any you know end of life type of care or talked about if something happens to you or if this or if that it was like no, in a matter of time you will get a transplant, like there was just never any talk of death.
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Basically, um, they were my parents and my grandparents were my source of um, strength and faith through the whole process.
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And um, so it seems like you know when you got that news.
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Uh, you know, you, you were, you already had like a lot of that determination and ambition of this is not the end.
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This is not going to be the story.
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This is not how it's going to end yeah so, and I know you said your parents and your grandparents stood behind you and they were in.
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They were standing in that line of vision with you that this is not good, this is not how you're going to leave this world.
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Yes, yes.
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And so what were, like, what was the process afterwards, after the diagnosis of the stage for acute liver failure?
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Like what was the next thing?
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Sure.
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So after I was diagnosed, within a week's time I was put onto the Illinois transplant wait list and I was in and out of the hospital over those next several months multiple times.
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I had my gallbladder removed.
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A month later I had my gallbladder removed.
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A month later I was hallucinating, which I did not know.
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That was a part of liver disease.
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When your ammonia levels get too high in the body because you can't detox, it goes to your brain and you start hallucinating.
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So that was another struggle.
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But within those few months the doctors told me you should start looking for a living donor On top of being on a wait list.
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If someone passes away because this disease, they said you should start looking for a living donor.
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I didn't even know that you could donate a portion of your liver, so that was something I learned in the process.
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So my sister, multiple cousins got tested through blood work but they wanted someone actually older than me because they also look at the psychological effect of this process.
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So even though my sister was a blood match, they said okay, if you're to go under anesthesia, your sister is and she donates to you and, god forbid, something happens, you still pass away.
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What is this going to do to her.
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Something happens, you still pass away.
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What is this going to do to her?
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So they wanted someone older, someone a little a bit more distance from the family in this process.
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Okay, yeah, so they wanted someone older.
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They wanted so that because of that whole psychological effect, you know they wanted somebody who'd probably understand the risk, yes, of it better as well, right that, on the receipt, on the giving end as well, right, receiving, and both understand that there is risk.
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Like in any surgery, there's risk, but especially when you're getting a transplant right, there's a different level of risk involved, right, right.
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And so there was at the time that you were in in on the list waiting to get a transplant.
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You said that there was about 119,000 people on the list.
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How many months were you on that list before you got a proper match?
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So I was diagnosed March of 2014, put on the wait list in June, three months later, when I went into acute liver failure and I heard about a possible match end of January in 2015.
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So nine plus months later, okay.
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And uh, what was it like for you then when you've got the news about that possible match?
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When I got the phone call from the living donor, it was surreal and I was extremely grateful, but at the same time I felt a little apprehensive, like until the day that it happens.
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A little apprehensive, like until the day that it happens, I'll believe it, type of thing.
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Because, you know, I, I knew the circumstances.
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He was volunteering to do this for me and he had the rights to back out of that at any point.
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This was, you know, he.
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You were taking a perfectly healthy man to, now taking 55% of his liver.
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So I was extremely grateful.
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I kept praying that everything would work out how you know, how it was supposed to.
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But until the day that it happened, you know, I was a little little worried.
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Yeah and yeah, and chris, he was working as a code enforcement officer out in frankfurt.
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Yes, yes and so, um, he called you for the for for the donating 55% of his liver.
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Yes, and when was the operation then?
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When did the liver transplant surgery happen then?
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So it happened a week to the day before my 26th birthday.
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It was March 16th 2015.
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And, and you know, just talk about what a difference you know, believing and being determined and just keeping the faith has.
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Because that you know, rewind, one year before you were getting the news that you weren't going to make it another three months you were.
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You know this was the end for you.
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Now, fast forward a year, about a year now you are, you know, about to get this transplant surgery.
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You know you, you know you kept going.
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You know you kept alive.
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I mean, you know, contrary to what they said would happen to you past three months, you kept alive.
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You are now undergoing the surgery.
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So what was it like for you then at that point?
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You know you got the phone call.
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It was right before your 26th birthday, and what a birthday present, in a way.
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Right yeah, what was going through your head at that time?
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So as far as the birthday present, it's funny you bring that up, because that's all I kept saying to myself All I want for my birthday is a liver transplant.
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All I want for my birthday is a match Someone, please.
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And it was almost like this manifestation and I didn't even know at the time that I was manifesting this and rewind, like you said, a year before, when I got the diagnosis, then was put on the list and then was told oh, you need a living donor, which the odds of that were even worse than someone passing away and being a match.
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10 years ago, a living donor match for a liver was about 2% a living donor match for a liver was about 2%.
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So you know, even now I look back and it's hard for me to understand how strong I was despite those odds.
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But I feel if my mind wasn't strong and I didn't have the support system that I had, and also is my health deteriorated and you know, at night I would try to get up out of bed and I would fall.
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And you know just all the complications, the hallucinations.
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When I would look at my parents and my sister and see their faces with the result of those nights or the continued bad blood tests and results from the doctors, I would see their hope and their spirit decline and I knew that if something happened to me it would destroy them, like it would destroy them.
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So it got to a point where, as much as like I was struggling, it didn't matter because I wasn't fighting for me, I was fighting for my family.
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I knew I could not leave them.
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Something bigger than yourself you can surpass, like any obstacles that maybe in the past you would never think you could do, you were capable of.
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Like your potential is way more than you even realize.
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And that's a very powerful lesson you know in and of itself, to learn that.
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You know the power of your mindset, the power of looking at something bigger than yourself, and you know making it not in like when you were in the depths of the hardships of the health issues you were going through and seeing their hope start to glimmer and allowing that, instead of making you spiral, it seemed like you you put.
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You did a good job of letting that ignite fire in you to be like no, I'm going to keep fighting, I'm going to keep pushing, I'm going to.
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You know this is going to happen for me.
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I am going to get the transplant I need.
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I am going to live a full life.
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Yes.
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Yes, and you know it's.
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It's so powerful to hear that testimony in and of itself.
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Thank you, those to show the power of manifestation and the power of just believing, you know.
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And another thing I did, which I never did in the past, was I started to journal not like my thoughts or anything at the time, which I probably should have done, I just didn't think of it but I started to look up, like on Pinterest and Google, like warrior, fighter, survivor type of quotes and different biblical scriptures and verses, and I would write these down and on days that I was really struggling you know, mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, whatever the case I would read these over and over and over and it would give me this boost that like, okay, you're going to be okay, you're going to be fine, you can do this.
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It was just a matter of getting to the next day.
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Yes, and were there any particular quotes or any particular Bible verses that really saying to you that you still hold near and dear to your heart to this present day?
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I would say.
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A Bible verse for me would be um no, no weapon formed against me shall prosper, and kind of a uh, not a funny quote, but something that my grandfather always liked and would ask to hear from me and he passed away almost three years ago was oh my gosh, what was it?
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It was God thinks, or no, hang on, let me think of it, it was.
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I want to say it correctly.
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God doesn't give us more than more than we can handle.
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Apparently, god thinks I'm a badass.
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More than we can handle Apparently.
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God thinks I'm a badass and I like that one a lot.
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I like both of them.
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No weapons formed against me shall prosper.
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And the other one you said you know about God not giving you more than you can handle Apparently.
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God thinks you're badass.
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I love it.
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That's fabulous.
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Oh my God, I love it.
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That's fabulous.
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Oh my God, I um, you know, and it's so.
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It's always so nice to like have those things that you can actually use to you know, as you know, just guiding posts to you know, it's always good to be able to have, like that, you know, inspiration and have that humor.
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I mean you can't ask for better.
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So when you go into your surgery, come out, you ended up actually getting married to the donor.
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I did I did Okay.
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So how so was it that after the surgery you both ended up starting to date Like, did that just kind of evolve?
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Like how did that happen?
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So we actually met in person before the about a month before the transplant, and then our families met and also before the transplant, we had a dinner before and then it was, you know, after the surgery.
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We were healing together.
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We were starting to, you know, go on walks, do different things, trying to get back to a normal life.
00:24:30.691 --> 00:24:40.146
And that's where the bond started and also this feeling of, I mean, this man saved my life.
00:24:40.146 --> 00:24:49.368
You know, he voluntarily put himself into surgery to save my life.
00:24:49.368 --> 00:24:59.882
Uh, so someone doing that, um, I felt like, wow, what else would he add to my life?
00:25:00.061 --> 00:25:15.098
you know, I mean mean this sense of value and so, after the surgery had happened, now you met in person before your families had met, before your family met him before.
00:25:15.098 --> 00:25:24.864
Rather, um, you, you stayed in touch and then, um, like, how long, like, did you guys date before the marriage?
00:25:27.035 --> 00:25:28.500
Oh, not long.
00:25:28.500 --> 00:25:35.844
Okay Was, let's see.
00:25:35.844 --> 00:25:37.146
Surgery was in March.
00:25:37.146 --> 00:25:45.076
We got married in October of the following year, so a year and a half Okay.
00:25:45.336 --> 00:25:48.884
Okay, and then?
00:25:48.884 --> 00:25:51.635
So how did everything then start to pick up?
00:25:51.635 --> 00:25:55.545
You know, and you know, you got married a year, year and a half, after dating.
00:25:55.545 --> 00:26:05.021
How did everything else then start to pick up with in terms of being out in media and leading it to?
00:26:05.021 --> 00:26:17.731
You know, you've been published on many different magazine articles, you've been featured in different news segments, and you know very prominent ones as well.
00:26:17.731 --> 00:26:21.584
How did everything kind of start to catapult?
00:26:27.934 --> 00:26:29.417
everything kind of start to catapult.
00:26:29.417 --> 00:26:31.883
So actually prior to even the transplant, the local news got ahold of it.
00:26:31.883 --> 00:26:49.060
You know, frankfurt, mokena, the towns in my area they were being, it was, the story was being published in the newspaper and I remember being in the ICU still after my surgery and ABC seven news wanting to come to interview me and I'm like can we hold off a little bit?
00:26:49.060 --> 00:26:58.039
I'm very bloated and swollen and you know, 12 hour surgery not really up for right now.
00:26:58.039 --> 00:27:08.676
So really, after we got out of the ICU, got home, after we got out of the ICU, got home, the news exploded.
00:27:09.317 --> 00:27:17.089
I could never have imagined my story, especially like, because other people have transplants, have gone through this stuff.
00:27:17.089 --> 00:27:30.038
But I think the fact that it was someone local that I didn't know prior donated to me, someone local that I didn't know prior donated to me and then once the news got out that we were dating, um, it really exploded.
00:27:30.038 --> 00:27:51.895
Like you said, we were on, um, steve Harvey, and he, uh, we were engaged at that point and he surprised us with, uh, our honeymoon and it just it really catapulted from there and as much as it was like this.
00:27:51.895 --> 00:27:54.338
You know it looked great.
00:27:55.801 --> 00:28:04.618
I was struggling a bit with it because I felt like all these other people have had transplants before.
00:28:04.618 --> 00:28:05.059
Why don't?
00:28:05.059 --> 00:28:06.741
Why aren't they getting this attention?
00:28:06.741 --> 00:28:07.122
Why?
00:28:07.122 --> 00:28:07.542
You know?
00:28:07.542 --> 00:28:31.478
There's nothing special about me, maybe a bit of imposter syndrome going on to turn it into instead of like, not why me, but um, I wanted to educate people.
00:28:31.478 --> 00:28:43.242
I wanted to educate them on organ donation and living donation and the power of like, of hope, of resilience, of, uh, never giving up no matter what somebody tells you.
00:28:44.044 --> 00:28:50.446
Sure, From there.
00:28:50.446 --> 00:28:51.827
Really, it seems like they, like you, found purpose.
00:28:51.827 --> 00:28:52.669
You know, too.
00:28:52.669 --> 00:28:54.770
You know when you started getting all.
00:28:54.770 --> 00:28:58.983
You know when things started blowing up for you in terms of publicity.
00:28:58.983 --> 00:29:04.577
You know about your story and what you had to undergo, because here's the thing, though, heather, as much as you may have felt like it.
00:29:04.577 --> 00:29:09.647
Here's the thing, though, heather, as much as you may have felt like it was imposter syndrome, like why me and other people also had this too.
00:29:09.647 --> 00:29:11.516
You know, I also.
00:29:11.516 --> 00:29:26.884
You know, think, you know it's a very powerful thing that you had to undergo, right, and at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how you slice it right that this is a powerful event that you had to undergo.
00:29:27.065 --> 00:29:46.865
Being a young, just I mean, I can only imagine what it must've been like being a young 25 year old, about to be 20, turning 25, two weeks out of your own birthday, 25th birthday and being told okay, you are basically on death row, pretty much Right, you are basically on death row pretty much right now.
00:29:46.885 --> 00:29:53.646
You know having to wait a year later for your next birthday, and you had to pray all that time and really put the result.
00:29:53.666 --> 00:30:05.779
You know, keep up the faith, even though things are difficult, even though you were facing hallucinations, even though you had to keep going to the hospital and you really still keeping up the faith and keeping hope for the next better day to come.
00:30:05.779 --> 00:30:13.326
Right, that in get in receiving, you know, that gift of getting a donation, a living donation.
00:30:13.326 --> 00:30:27.936
You know, and given the age you were in, I can only imagine like I don't think, most people can even begin to comprehend that Right and begin to comprehend that Right.
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