MU women’s basketball player seeks kidney
Marquette women’s basketball forward Tori McCoy was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease in December. Now she is hoping to receive a transplant from a living donor.
McCoy shared a letter through social media accounts Thursday detailing her story and her hopes.
“I fully understand asking for an organ donation from someone is substantial, but I also believe in the generosity and compassion of others and hope that by sharing my story others will be impacted,” she says in the letter.
“While this request directly affects my own situation, I hope to also raise awareness for organ donation atlarge.”
In the letter, McCoy details a turbulent six months. She was hospitalized after suffering from severe fatigue in December. Doctors eventually diagnosed her with Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis, which causes scarring in the kidney.
She underwent dialysis three times a week, and doctors told her that she would eventually need a transplant. A GoFundMe page was set up in January to help McCoy’s family with medical costs.
“She has handled it better than I think anyone could,” MU coach Carolyn Kieger said on Friday. “I have been
floored by how she’s handled it.
“Obviously she has good days and bad days in terms of how she is feeling. Not even emotionally but physically. Dialysis is rough on anyone, not to mention someone who is still going to school, still coming to practice.”
McCoy spent most of the spring undergoing an extensive evaluation for a transplant.
“She was at every game she could be at,” Kieger said. “She was cheering. Giving advice to the team at halftime, post-game. She was really just staying positive as much as she could.”
McCoy did not want to leave school, so she chose to do dialysis in Milwaukee, often doing homework at the hospital.
Kieger said her players were initially stunned at McCoy’s diagnosis, but they eventually did what they could to help their teammate.
“A couple of players will go to dialysis with her and sit with her,” Kieger said. “They’ll drive her and pick her up.
“It’s been pretty remarkable the way this team has rallied around her.”
McCoy is on the transplant list but is seeking a live donation. Anyone interested can reach out to Jeff Klister, the living donor coordinator at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center, at (414) 6460584.
“They told her that on dialysis life expectancy is not great for a young kid,” Kieger said. “And even just for other stuff that happens with your body, in terms of a female. To carry a kid, if she keeps on dialysis, that’s going to be tough to do.
“Obviously, there are people in her family that are going to get tested (for donation). There are people here (in Milwaukee) that are going to get tested. The more people we can get the word out to — best case scenario is that she gets a live donor. Because she can be on the transplant list for years.”
McCoy spent her freshman season at Ohio State, averaging 8.1 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. She transferred to MU last summer and sat out the season in accordance with NCAA rules.
She was a 2016 McDonald’s AllAmerican at Saint Thomas More High School in Champaign, Ill.