What Does it Take to be a Hero?

What does it take to be a hero? That depends on your definition. There are some that have changed the course of history. Some will go down in the history books. Others are the quiet type that with their courage and action, may not change the world, but changes the world for someone and their family.

This person today is Tommy’s daughter Kerry Mackie.

John Mackie, Kerry’s father in law, was suffering a slow death from Hepatitis he contracted from eating raw oysters. He had been deteriorating for several years. His one son, Scott, tried to donate a piece of his liver but was not a match. John had been on the nearly impossible to obtain transplant list and, as we all know, to move up on the list your health has to go down. John was becoming more and more frail, his weight plummeted. Time wasn’t long for John, he was dying.

Kerry decided to see if she was eligible for donation and went through the months of testing at University of Pennsylvania with numerous all day trips back and forth to Philly. She was a match!

Now to make this decision to donate knowing there are risks to you own life when you have two small children at home is a selfless act of love.

Less than one day after receiving his gift of life, John, who prior to this surgery was getting to weak to talk, was chattering away. A new lease on life, talks of what his future plans were and where he wanted to go and do, knowing full well that just one day earlier there was no future. How do you say Thank You for giving someone back his life, for giving a wife her husband, for giving children back their father and grandfather. How?

This quiet hero, Kerry Mackie, has changed the lives of a whole family and that has a positive effect on the world.