In the summer of 2021, Lauren Rice, Mgt 11, then age 33, perched beside her parents and twin brother in their beach condo, the sloshing waves and soft white sands of St. Augustine in the distance, as older sister Kristen spilled the news.
Her kidneys were failing, Kristen told them. And she needed their help.
Lauren immediately pulled out her phone and did what most of us do when we don’t know where to begin: go down an internet rabbit hole. The first step to donating a kidney, she learned, was to make sure she was a match. That night, Lauren submitted her first donor application.
The process involved months of blood tests, urine tests, medical scans, EKGs, X-rays, even psychological exams.
“Let’s just say our mom was a wreck,” Lauren says. “But the only part I was nervous about was being told I wasn’t a match.” Spoiler alert: She was a match.
The Georgia Tech alumna has always looked up to her self-sufficient older sister who’s five years her elder, she says. Now a lawyer and mother living in Florida, Kristen remains an independent soul. She’s the kind of person who never wants anyone to worry about her, the kind of person who always steps up when someone needs help.
It was Kristen and her love of viola that inspired Lauren to pick up the violin as a kid. And without a childhood devoted to orchestra, Lauren would have never met her high school sweetheart-turned-husband.
“I just knew it had to be me,” Lauren says, of being an organ donor.
During the months of testing and waiting in between appointments for results, Lauren and Kristen spent more time together in Florida, and a previously private Kristen began to open up more, to be vulnerable with her sister in ways she might not have otherwise.
“The entire process added a new dimension to our relationship,” Lauren says.
But becoming a donor and going through several rounds of testing, not to mention the anxiety of potential for the surgery to fail—it can be an isolating experience, she adds.
She found solace in Facebook groups like Kidney Donor Athletes, members of whom got together for 5Ks, marathons, and climbing adventures. Another small local group of Georgia donors gathered for Braves games and other social events. Connecting with fellow donors, Lauren says, really helped soothe the uneasiness.
The night before the transplant in December 2021, both sisters lay in their hospital beds texting each other from their respective rooms. The rest of the family had driven down to Orlando for the procedure and spent the night at the Bartch Transplant House for families of transplant patients.
Around 2 a.m., Kristen snuck into her baby sister’s room like they were kids again.
“Neither of us could fall asleep,” Lauren says. “And I think she just wanted to check on me.”
The surgeries were successful, and today, both sisters remain healthy and closer than ever. They wear matching “Kidney Buddies For Life” T-shirts with pride and send each other Taylor Swift lyrics over text.
One lyric in particular from Swift’s Evermore—“Long story short, I survived”—has become especially meaningful to Kristen, who recently attended Swift’s Tampa concert with her daughter.
When asked if she would consider her kidney donation an act of kindness, Lauren immediately says no.
“I just see it as something I could do to help my sister, to give back to her for being there through the ups and downs. If anything, it just feels surreal,” Lauren says. “I mean, I shared a womb with my brother—and now a kidney with my sister.”