The UW-Marathon County women's volleyball team faces off against Northland International University from Marinette County Monday night at home.
Ticket holders will not only see a great match, but will hear a special message from a young man who is alive thanks to the gift of life.
Every season, the team dedicates one match to raise awareness about an issue that's affecting residents in Northcentral Wisconsin. Last year, teammates decked out in pink for breast cancer research. Monday night is "Recycle Life" night, an effort to spread the word about organ donation.
The night's special guest is 20-year-old Darin Weiks, a young man who likes to play sports, attends college and lives on his own.
Sounds like others his age, right? We'll, it's a far cry from where the Athens native was just a few years ago.
At just a year old, Darin was diagnosed with Glycogen Storage Disease, which determined he was missing an enzyme to break down and release stored fat and sugar, causing his liver to swell three times the normal size.
Darin recalls what it was like. "I had to drink kool-aid and corn starch mixtures. I had to be hooked up to a machine through a peg tube, so that made doing everyday things with friends that any normal kids without health problems would do almost impossible cause you had to plan life around that disease."
For 18 years, Darin was able to manage his disease until doctors found multiple tumors on his liver, which were inoperable.
This led him to going on the transplant list. Nearly a year later of waiting, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota called saying there was a liver available from a deceased donor.
In October of 2009, Darin underwent surgery. And life hasn't been the same since. It's been better.
He had the opportunity to address the crowd and share his story of survival and encourage others to register to become an organ donor, and save lives like his.
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