Sheila Spann, PharmD, competes in Transplant Games in the United States and around the world — essentially the Olympics for transplant patients. She also likes to skydive and hunt, and that’s in addition to her day jobs as a pharmacist and diabetes educator just outside of Jackson, Mississippi.
None of this would have been possible if an organ donor hadn’t given her a kidney in 2011, when she received a transplant at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She celebrates that day in August as her second birthday, a reminder of the extraordinary life circumstances she has overcome.
Around 1996, Spann was diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease that attacked her kidneys and sent them into failure. Right around that time, her husband died of a massive heart attack, leaving her a single mom to 7-year-old son John and 6-year-old daughter Christina.
By 2008, Spann was on dialysis, first at a center, then doing nightly dialysis at home. She felt bad every day and didn’t enjoy all the physical activities she does today.
“I just knew I had to go to dialysis and get dialyzed,” she said. “Because I knew if I didn’t do dialysis, I was going to die. And I was not going to do that. I was going to do everything I could to get that kidney. I had two kids. I was not going to fail. I just owe it all to God because he made it happen.”
“Sheila, this is a good kidney”
To find a kidney, Spann got herself placed on transplant lists at multiple centers, including the Vanderbilt Transplant Center. She remembers the day in 2011 she took a call from nephrologist Heidi Schaefer, MD, professor of Medicine and now medical director of Adult Solid Organ Transplant. A matching kidney had been found.
“Sheila, this is a good kidney,” she recalls Schaefer saying.
Spann dropped what she was doing and drove to Vanderbilt for her new kidney.
“I’ve been feeling great,” she said. “I go to the gym every day. Weights, run … I feel good, and I believe if I can stay active, I’m going to live as long as I can.”
After she shared her transplant story on Facebook, one of the managers of Team Mississippi of the Transplant Games of America saw it. She was invited to join the team. In 2022, she competed in San Diego, and the following year represented the United States at the World Transplant Games in Perth, Australia. She just competed in the national Transplant Games in Birmingham, Alabama, and is training to join the World Transplant Games in Dresden, Germany, next year.
Schaefer has watched her patient prosper.
“I have cared for Sheila for many years and always enjoy hearing about her successes as a transplant Olympian in a variety of different events,” Schaefer said. “She is truly an inspiration and a testament to the life-changing gift of organ transplantation.”
Spann competes in several sports, including pickleball, golf, discus throwing and darts. She came in first for women’s golf doubles and placed third in a 5K, competing against women in her age category. “I just like the adrenaline,” she said. “I guess that’s why I do it.”
“I love helping people”
In recent years, she has taken up skydiving and hunting (she shot her first buck and doe this year.)
She said she loves her dual jobs — working as a pharmacist and managing her own diabetes education clinic. “I love what I do, and I love helping people,” she said.
All this was possible, she said, because of one person who decided to become an organ donor.
“If we didn’t have donors, we wouldn’t be able to compete,” she said. “I give back to my donor just by participating.”
She shares her story to inspire others who might be waiting for a kidney transplant.
“Just stay focused; stay positive because it’s going to happen,” she said. “Just be ready.”
To learn more about becoming an organ and tissue donor, visit bethegifttoday.com.
Tennessee drivers can also choose to become organ donors on their driver’s license applications. Donors are encouraged to share their decisions with their families.
