When you’re in the hustle and bustle of life, working hard to provide for yourself and others, grabbing whatever food you can in the moment, and constantly pouring into everyone except yourself, it’s easy to slip into survival mode. One day, you look up and realize years have passed, burnout has become a way of life, and putting yourself last feels like second nature. It’s a familiar cycle that can lead to high stress, lack of sleep, weight gain, and serious health issues.
For 40-year-old truck driver and single mother Athena Latson, that cycle nearly cost her life.
Latson worked seven days a week, often more than 60 hours, living on energy drinks, caffeine pills, and convenience store food. “I lived at work and visited the house,” she said. But on the morning that changed everything, she knew something was wrong. Driving to work, she struggled to stay in her lane and felt something was off. When she told her supervisor what was happening, the response was merely, “You want this promotion, don’t you?”
Driven by obligation, fear, and the pressure to provide, Latson ignored her symptoms and got behind the wheel anyway. She can’t remember the last 10 miles she drove before blacking out and crashing into a pole. She only recalls waking up to the sound of the light pole hitting the truck she was driving.
She was rushed to the hospital by ambulance and received life-altering news that she couldn’t outrun – her kidneys were failing. They were functioning at just 18%. Additionally, she had high blood pressure and needed urgent intervention.
A nephrologist, a specialist in kidney health, later diagnosed her with stage 3 kidney disease and warned she would soon require dialysis. Doctors placed her on a blood pressure patch at twice the typical dose. When she developed severe itching, she alerted her care team and was mistakenly told to remove it. Within a week, her kidney function plummeted from 18% to 4%. This sent her body into shock, and she was forced onto dialysis in order to live.
Two years later, her condition has worsened, and she still undergoes three-hour, life-saving dialysis treatments every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Despite now being in stage 5 chronic kidney disease, she remains motivated by the love of her spouse and her 19-year-old son. Hopeful, she’s now at the top of the transplant list and believes she may receive her life-saving call in the first half of 2026. She continues to work as a truck driver and has transformed her story into advocacy, especially for other young women facing kidney disease.
A recent turning point came when she attended her first Kidney Convo, a community-centered event hosted by the National Kidney Donation Organization. The gathering connected her with others living with kidney disease and gave her the courage to share her journey publicly. She’s since begun mentoring others and using her social media platforms to spread awareness and search for a donor. Offers have come from her spouse, mother, and coworkers, though none met the strict donor requirements.
According to the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), living kidney donors must generally be at least 18 years old, though age requirements can vary. Conditions such as uncontrolled high blood pressure, diabetes, or cancer can disqualify a donor, and smokers are typically required to quit before approval.
The need is urgent. NKF reports that 33% of American adults are at risk for kidney disease, and Black Americans are more than three times as likely to develop kidney failure as white Americans. Structural inequities—economic, medical, and social— in Black communities lead to higher rates of blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, all of which drive kidney disease.
These disparities are what drive health advocate and kidney transplant recipient Mark McIntosh to raise his voice. McIntosh, a white male who lived an active lifestyle, developed amyloidosis—a rare blood cancer that attacked his kidneys and liver. This led him to 15 months of chemotherapy and dialysis to protect his organs. During that time, he was struck most by those who joined him in the waiting room.
Every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, he sat with the same group: Amber, Jackie, John, Elizabeth, Joyce, and Maria. Four were Black, two were Hispanic or Latino, and he was the only white person. As a journalist and community member, he’d long been in proximity to Black and Brown communities, but seeing the disparity with his own eyes changed him.
“At the end of the day, you realize it does not matter if we’re Black, Brown, white, live in a mission, live in a mansion, live on Main Street, or behind it,” he said. “We need each other… We need to support each other to try to be as healthy as possible because kidney disease is bad and it’s getting worse.”
Today, McIntosh is helping shine a light on one of the most hopeful moments ahead of the 2026 Transplant Games, which will bring an estimated 12,000 participants and supporters to Denver for what organizers call “the largest celebration of life in the world.”
The six-day event will feature an Olympic-style opening ceremony and more than 4,000 transplant recipients, living donors, and donor families competing in events ranging from cycling to singing. “The Games bring together thousands of transplant recipients, living donors, donor families, caregivers, and supporters… to honor the legacy of donors, raise awareness about the importance of donation, and promote healthy living after transplant,” according to the Transplant Life Foundation.
For Latson and thousands like her, the Games are more than an event—they’re a symbol of survival, community, and hope.
For more information or to register, visit transplantgamesofamerica.org. To see if you could be a match for Athena or others, and begin the screening process, visit uchealth.donorscreen.org.
