After years helping others, transplant professional seeks hope for his own father

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A local organ recovery professional who has spent years helping facilitate life-saving transplants is now hoping for a life-saving gift for his own father.

Jonathan Neff works as a surgical organ recovery professional with HonorBridge, a nonprofit organization that helps coordinate the organ donation process. His job often places him in operating rooms during some of the most difficult moments families face.

“The part of the job that I think people overlook a lot of the time is the fact that there’s a lot of emotion that is tied up in the job,” Neff said.

For years, Neff has helped turn loss into hope for transplant recipients and their families. But he never expected the need for an organ transplant would become so personal.

His father, Gary Neff, has polycystic kidney disease, a genetic condition that causes cysts to develop in the kidneys and can lead to kidney failure over time. He was recently placed on the kidney transplant waiting list.

“I was relieved that he had gotten accepted,” Jonathan Neff said. “While on one end I was very excited, I was also very nervous about the road ahead.”

Through his work, Neff has gained a unique understanding of the generosity that makes transplantation possible.

“For me, organ donation requires something very selfless to happen,” he said. “It requires somebody to make a decision at a very tragic point in whatever’s going on in their life.”

The situation has made this Father’s Day especially meaningful for the Wilmington-area family.

Just months ago, Neff became a father for the first time with the birth of his child. As he celebrates his first Father’s Day, he hopes his own father will have the opportunity to continue making memories with the newest generation of the family.

“This is my first Father’s Day, and I think my wish for Father’s Day would be that as I start my journey as a father, my father would also be able to continue his journey — not only as a father, but as a grandfather to my children,” Neff said.

According to HonorBridge, thousands of people across the country remain on transplant waiting lists, relying on organ donors and their families to make lifesaving transplants possible.