Dawn Lyles, 43, of Kenbridge, learned about kidney donation when she started the journey of donating one of her kidneys to her father, whose own kidneys were failing due to years of diabetes.

Now, more than six months following her donation, her father is no longer having pre-transplant complaints of being tired and nauseated.

Lyles is a great example of stepping out of your comfort zone to assist someone you love. In her case, she kept her father from having to go through the rigor of dialysis.

She found out there were so many people on the waiting list for kidney transplants that some had been waiting up to 10 years.

She decided to do what she could to make sure her minor discomfort took away his major discomfort.

According to the National Kidney Foundation, the median wait time for an individual’s first kidney transplant is 3.6 years and can vary depending on health, compatibility and availability of organs.

The organization’s website cited 13 people die each day while waiting for a life-saving kidney transplant and every 14 minutes someone is added to the kidney transplant list.

According to organdonor.gov, in addition to kidney donation, living donors can also donate one of two lobes of their liver. The website cites that cells in the remaining lobe of the liver grow or regenerate until the liver is almost its original size with re-growth occurring in a short period of time in both the donor and recipient.

A lung or part of a lung, part of the pancreas or part of the intestines can also be donated.

If a loved one experiences a crisis or medical emergency, there’s relief in knowing that, depending on the injury or illness, a donation of either part of an organ or a whole organ could save their life.

Morgan White is a staff reporter for The K-V Dispatch. His email address is Morgan.White@KVDispatch.com.