Shannon and Travis' Story: Saving a Life and Donating a Kidney

From time to time we come across a story like this one. A stranger... Who volunteers to donate an organ to a child she's never met. The more miraculous thing? That she turned out to be a match.
 
"When I was born one of my kidneys didn't develop,” says 15 year old Travis Chagolla… a kid from southern Humboldt who plain and simply... needed a kidney.
 
His donor, Shannon Robinson says, “I think to myself oh my god how do you get yourself into these things!”
 
Shannon was a stranger to Travis, but she offered up her kidney just the same.
"I just really want to do this for him."
 
"Shannon's like part of our family. Its amazing to me that she would think of donating a body part!" says Sally Chagolla, Travis’ mom.
 
Kelly May sat down with the trio in Miranda. That's where it all started... The talk around town that Travis needed a donor, fast.
 
"Shannon came up and told me that Shawn or someone had told her about my issue and then she offered to do a blood test to see if she'd be a match," Travis said.
 
And she was.
O positive.
 
"The odds of it are kind of far fetched," Shannon said.
 
Shannon and Travis have been back and forth to UC San Francisco to start the donation process... that's where the surgery will be. But for someone who's already giving up something that's priceless, Sally says she doesn't want Shannon to have to worry about money- for hospital bills and stays, gas for all of the appointments.
 
"For Shannon though, she's gunna have to recuperate. And that was one of my issues. That I don't want Shannon to incur any medical expenses."
 
That’s why Sally is hoping to raise money to pay Shannon back in a way. She's organizing a spaghetti dinner for the community in hopes of relieving some of Shannon's financial burden. But Shannon says...
 
"I don't want him ever to feel that he has to do anything extra for me or owe me anything like that. This is a right of life for a child."
 
A child-teenager-whatever you want to call him... part of an amazing pair of former strangers… now calling themselves family.
 
"I think sometimes random acts of kindness have to be more than helping someone across the street,” Shannon said.
 
 
TO DONATE OR HELP:
 
Spaghetti Dinner
February 4, 2012.
6pm at “Beginnings” in Briceland
$15 per plate