Clement Story

Three and a half year old Colby Clement is a bundle of energy. Living up in the mountains by Lake Tahoe CA, he loves sledding and playing in the snow. He also has developed a love of cars, maneuvering his remote control car all over the house, and getting excited when he sees fast cars racing on TV.

But Colby wasn't always this active. When he was just 5 months old, he got sick with what seemed to be the flu. Multiple visits to the doctor and extensive blood tests discovered that he was suffering from kidney failure. He would get so tired, he could not even crawl a few paces before needing to rest. Too small for a kidney transplant, Colby spent the next 10 months on dialysis. He battled infections and complications while trying to grow and gain weight so he could eligible for transplant.

Colby's parents, Glen and Becky Clement, were surprised to find out they could be considered as living donors, and after going through the requisite tests, found out that they were both compatible donors for their son. Besides taking care of Colby, Becky was the busy mother of his siblings, Caleb and Aubrey, so Glen volunteered to be the donor. In August 2002 at the UC Davis Medical Center, Colby received his new kidney from his father.

Before the transplant, Glen had a very active outdoor lifestyle. He was a member of the Placer County Search and Rescue Team and a Scoutmaster. One month after donating his kidney to Colby, he was again backpacking and hiking with the Boy Scouts. He recently completed the Triathalon at Pacific Grove and the Donner Lake Triathalon. Working for a mortgage title company in Truckee, he avoids all the summer tourist traffic by riding his bicycle around town.

Since the transplant, Colby takes his medication as just a fact of life. Glen says Colby gets a plate each day with his pills and syringes of liquid medication laid out for him, and he just chomps on his pills and squirts his liquid meds in his mouth, asks for a glass of water and is on his way! Colby must drink 2.5 liters of water each day, and although he sometimes complains about his tummy being so full, he knows it's important that he stay hydrated.

When asked what message Glen would like to send to people about being organ donors, he enthusiastically replied, "Do it! It's not that hard. It’s not that big a deal. If you have the opportunity to be a living donor for someone, it's the ultimate gift." With a voice full of love, he said, "It has been an incredible blessing to see the change in my child's life. Also, if you have lost a loved one, and have the opportunity to donate their organs, it is a wonderful gift to give life to another person."