Bill Conner riding across America to raise money and awareness for organ donation
Bill meets his daughter's heart recipient for the first time in the New Roads area after biking all the way from Wisconsin….
Posted by Donate Life Louisiana on Sunday, June 18, 2017
A man in America has cycled 1,400 miles across the country to meet the man who benefited from his daughter’s organ donation and hear her heartbeat.
Bill Conner lost his daughter Abbey in January when she was found face down in a hotel pool while on holiday in Mexico. The 20-year-old suffered irreversible brain injuries, passing away once doctors had taken her organs for donation.
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Now he is riding more than 2,000 miles from his home in Madison, Wisconsin to the Broward Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where her organs were harvested.
Along the way Conner made an emotional stop-off to meet Loumonth Jack Jr., who received Abbey’s heart after suffering from a heart attack and being given only 10 days to live.
The two met on Father’s Day in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, sharing a long embrace before Jack Jr. pulled out a stethoscope to let Conner hear his daughter’s heartbeat one more time.
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“Knowing he’s alive because of Abbey, Abbey is alive inside of him – it’s her heart having him stand up straight,” Conner told CBS.
“I was happy for him and his family, and at the same time, I got to reunite with my daughter.”
Conner is now continuing his ride to Florida, and is nearly $15,000 towards the $20,000 that he is aiming to raise online in his daughter’s memory.