Tucked away in a quiet corner during a family ski trip to Vermont, alumna Jess Goeller ’04 finds a moment of solitude to reflect on her time at 花椒直播. Goeller works full-time as a project manager of medical devices at Bayer in Pittsburgh. She鈥檚 also a wife and mother of four boys, which makes uninterrupted time hard to come by.
鈥溁ń分辈� is a family unit and we will always be family. Time will never lessen the love, friendship, and compassion we have for one another,鈥� Goeller says.
It鈥檚 been twenty years since she graduated, but the major still keeps in touch with her former women鈥檚 basketball teammates from time to time, namely her longtime friend from high school and college roommate, Meredith McDonough ’05, with whom she shares a bond and sisterhood that goes well beyond college. The former teammates have reconnected recently to help raise awareness for organ donation, an endeavor Goeller supports on a deeply personal level as her ten-year-old son, Lucas, is in critical need of a liver transplant.
This is the second time the Goeller’s are seeking a life-saving liver donation for Lucas, and the family is feeling a sense of urgency this time around.
鈥淲hen your liver is failing, you ride such a fine line between life and death – you could be stable one day and very unstable the next day, there鈥檚 no way to anticipate where you鈥檙e headed,鈥� says Goeller.
Goeller has been leading the fight to find an organ donor for Lucas to receive a life-saving liver transplant. In 2015, when Lucas was 2 years old and near death, he received a liver from a young girl in Nebraska who died from brain cancer.
Eight years later, this past November, doctors told Goeller that Lucas’ liver was failing, and he needed another transplant, so she launched a social media and billboard campaign called “Save Lucas.”
鈥淭his whole campaign is to get Lucas a liver so he survives, but I think for Jess and the family, it鈥檚 also a really big priority to bring attention and awareness to how the process works with organ donation, and to register as many donors as possible and help as many people as they can on the transplant list,鈥� McDonough says.
The Goellers continue to seek comfort through their shared love of the outdoors, where the four brothers relish in hunting, skiing, fishing, and hiking.
鈥淲hen Lucas was dying from liver failure when he was two years old, we found that nature and being outside was so good for us. It helped us get out of the hospital or out of the house and see the beauty in life, which provided us with a lot of hope to keep fighting,鈥� says Goeller.
The tight-knit family of six also learned to lean on their support system of family and friends, who are helping to spread awareness about the importance of organ donation through their social media platforms and personal networks. With over 100,000 people on the transplant waiting list, one of their goals is to register as many people as they can on , the nationally recognized nonprofit responsible for managing the National Donate Life Registry at .
That鈥檚 also where Goeller鈥檚 relationship with her former Allegheny women鈥檚 basketball teammate, McDonough, came into play. The communication and media major and minor works for Hearst Media as a news anchor in Orlando, Florida, and reconnected with Goeller in December to see if there was anything she could do to help spread the word about Lucas.
鈥淚t鈥檚 tough when you leave college and start your careers and family life gets so busy, but the beautiful thing about having Meredith as an Allegheny Gator and聽family member is that when I reached out to her, it was like we were still in college. She didn鈥檛 hesitate one second, and she already had a plan in her head to support our family,鈥� Goeller says.
McDonough is also a mother of four, with kids around the same age as Goeller, and as soon as she heard the news about Lucas, she knew she needed to take action. After a in Pittsburgh, McDonough asked her station to share , where Lucas鈥檚 doctor coincidentally performs monthly liver transplant surgeries.
鈥淵ou want to go the extra mile to make sure Lucas鈥檚 story is out there because when you鈥檙e a teammate, you鈥檙e a teammate for life,鈥� McDonough says. “We were a tight-knit community at Allegheny, we were a very close team, and that鈥檚 the beauty of being a college athlete 鈥� you have a devotion to others in addition to yourself, and you have to put others in front of yourself, which makes a huge difference in how you carry yourself the rest of your life.”
Just as they did as teammates at Allegheny, McDonough and Goeller are working in tandem to share the message about organ donation with their Allegheny community in the hopes of registering as many donors as possible.
鈥淚 had always dreamed of making an impact in the community and helping those in need.聽 I never would have dreamed that I would be fighting to save my son Lucas and many like him by spreading the importance of organ donation awareness across the world,鈥� says Goeller. 鈥淚 now dream of signing up a record number of organ donors while we wait for a generous donor to save Lucas. Let鈥檚 save one person at a time and get them back home to their families.鈥�
The bond among alumni is always notable, but in this case, it could be a lifeline.
If you鈥檙e interested in registering to become an organ donor, please visit:
To support the Save Lucas campaign on social media, please visit: