On September 27, 2024, four women completed a four-day, 444-mile bicycle ride to raise awareness for living kidney donation. The four women, all living kidney donors, were sponsored by the National Kidney Registry.
The bicycle ride began in Nashville, Tennessee, and traveled along the Natchez Trace Parkway, a 444-mile recreational road and scenic drive through three states, ending in Natchez, Mississippi.
The four women—Anna Cannington, Diane Mills, Becky Bussey, and Rebekah Thomas—live all over the U.S. and did not know each other before the event, but they had one thing in common: each had donated a kidney to someone in need.
Cannington, of Vancleave, Mississippi, donated a kidney to a stranger in 2019. Mills, of Meridian, Mississippi, donated a kidney to a friend in 2010. Bussey, of Morrison, Colorado, donated a kidney to someone on the waitlist in 2020. Rebekah Thomas, of Jericho, Vermont, is a double donor, donating both a kidney and a portion of her liver to strangers.
“The goal of our 444-mile bicycle ride was to show others that it’s possible to live a full and active life after kidney donation,” said Diane Mills, who organized the ride. “Along our route, we shared our personal stories of donation with the hope that we could inspire others to consider organ donation. We also met two individuals who are currently on transplant waiting lists; meeting them was a stark reminder of the need for living donors.”
About the National Kidney Registry
The National Kidney Registry (www.kidneyregistry.org) is an organization whose mission is to save and improve the lives of people facing kidney failure by increasing the quality, speed, and number of living donor transplants while protecting all living donors.
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