Lending Specialist Shafer Gives Gift of Life to Friend Needing Kidney

FORT WORTH, Texas — When a long-time friend was in desperate need of a life-saving kidney, Teresa Shafer didn’t hesitate when she offered hers.

Shafer, a training specialist with the LoanLink Center, a CUNA Mutual Group lending support program, knew her friend and next-door neighbor Lynn Venable was sick. One of his kidneys was slowing shutting down as a result of a genetic disorder called polycystic kidney disease. Over a conversation last autumn, Venable’s wife Kris told Shafer that Lynn would have to register on a kidney transplant list and wait for a blood-type match. As they talked, Shafer discovered that both she and Lynn were A-positive. Shafer offered herself for testing.