Ray Brooks (pictured above with his wife Janet, daughter Riley 5 ½, and son Jackson 8 ½) has been a volunteer firefighter for over 14 years. Ray and our family know all about countless hours of volunteer work, risk, and sacrifice. Rays passion of protecting others lives and property shines through to everyone who knows him. However last spring it was a different scenario. Last June it was Ray who needed protecting and saving. Born in 1972, Ray was three months premature and required blood transfusions. While in his twenties he donated blood to the American Red Cross where he learned that his blood was tainted with hepatitis C.  Since 2005 Ray has been a patient of Duke University Medical Center under the care of Dr. Alastair Smith. Several attempts at treatment for Hep. C have been made with no availing results. In 2006 he had to receive his first transplant in May. That liver gave him a second chance and time- more time with me, more time with his son Jackson, the blessing of becoming a father for the second time to a daughter Riley and more time to serve his community as a volunteer fireman. But in the spring of 2012, Ray and I begin to see an all too familiar path ahead of us, the need for a new liver and facing a transplant again.                                                                                                                          

     Last June Ray was at his firehouse, Red Oak Volunteer Fire Department in Greenville, North Carolina. They were having their monthly meeting and preparing for a 50 year anniversary celebration of the department and a fundraising event for Ray and our family. Ray received a call and looked down at his caller ID…”a 919 area code”; he knew this could be an important call as he was on the transplant list for a new liver. He excused himself and took the call. The coordinator on the other end said the words Ray and our family had been praying for “Ray we have a liver, it is a perfect match, all signs are pointing to go and you should prepare to come to Duke immediately.”  Ray went back into the meeting room tears in his eyes and announced to his brothers “this is it that was the call, they have a liver and I’m going to Duke.” Ray rushed home to tell me, our two children, and prepare to pack for Durham.  Before this particular call we had 4 “false alarms” between April and June of 2013…by this point we knew this “drill” and had become pretty good at responding!  We reached Duke about 10pm and Ray was taken back to begin prepping, questioning, etc….before surgery, what we thought would be a few hours turned into an ALL night of WAITING!  (Waiting is certainly you become good at if you are on the transplant list!) Surgery wouldn’t however take place until the following morning about 9:00am on June 13, 2012. It was a long, tedious, grueling surgery. The amount of scar tissue that the surgeons found astounded them and took a total of 16 hours start to finish chiseling away the scar tissue around the old liver and finally being able to transplant the new one. 10 days after surgery Ray was released from DUMC to a local apartment in Durham where we stayed for 4 weeks.

     Upon our return to Greenville NC our family, friends, co-workers and the brotherhood of fireman had banded together to put together a “50 year celebration for the Red Oak Volunteer Fire Department and a Brooks Family Fundraiser, a family fun day. It was a HUGE success. The Red Cross came out this day and we raised over 30 units of blood. Ray and I are passionate about blood donation and getting the word out to people about donating. Ray has been given so many units of blood with two surgeries and the Red Cross is how he found out that he had hepatitis C.  Another cause we are passionate about is DONATING LIFE!  At the fundraiser we set up a donate life table to educate others about the importance of donating their organs, tissue and eye donation- we registered over 60 donors this day.  We also created a t-shirt and 100’s were sold to our family, friends and community. The t-shirt states” live it, give it, donate life…share what’s inside, be a hero, save a life!” There is nothing cooler than being around our hometown and seeing people wearing these shirts and getting the word out to others. I created a blog to keep our friends and family updated but also to share Ray’s story with others and the importance of being a donor. If you would like to visit our blog it is www.rcb2ndchance.blogspot.com .

     So as the month of May arrives and we remember and pay tribute to firefighters everywhere we also begin to reflect on our lives at this time last year. In just a few weeks Ray and I will celebrate our 12^th wedding anniversary on      June 9^th…..four days later we will celebrate his one year anniversary post transplant!   Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, show up in unexpected places; can be policeman, fireman, teachers….DONORS.  While Ray may be a “hero” to others we know that our family’s TRUE hero gave Ray the gift of life last June and shines down on him daily!