Arizona’s softball games Tuesday against New Mexico State will have a lot more meaning than the Wildcats playing in front of the home crowd for the last time in the regular season.
The doubleheader with games at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. at Hillenbrand Stadium is billed as Living Donor Awareness Night, an event that will include former Arizona Olympic medalist swimmer Crissy Perham (who competed as Crissy Ahmann-Leighton during her Wildcat days in the early 1990s.).
Perham, an Olympic gold medalist at the 1992 Barcelona Games, helped save the life of a parent of another swimmer who earned a gold medal that year — Missy Franklin.
Franklin’s father, Dick Franklin, reached end-stage kidney failure and Perham came to the rescue, donating a kidney in August 2022.
Her organ-donation motivation did not end there. She became an advocate for living donor awareness after her experience in which she claimed she was shopping in a farmer’s market only three days after the kidney donation to the elder Franklin.
She mentioned at the time that she didn’t realize the need for kidneys and livers, and how people can be living donors, until she donated her kidney.
“We will have living donors, a recipient and several medical personnel from Banner University Medical Center honored prior to the games on Tuesday,” Perham stated. “Our hope is to not only educate people about living kidney and liver donation but also inspire those in attendance to share what they learn about living donation and become allies and maybe even living donors.
“There are over 90.000 folks waiting for a kidney and we don’t have to wait to solve this problem.”
Perham’s stature as a former world-class athlete emphasizes the importance of donating a kidney while still leading a healthy life.
She was a three-time medalist at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, where she earned a pair of gold medals in relay action and was the silver medalist in the 100 butterfly. She won the 100 butterfly at the NCAA championships in 1991 and 1992 while competing for Arizona.
“The Living Donor Awareness Game is an idea started by a guy named Dave Galbenski, who received a liver lobe transplant,” Perham mentioned. “After his journey in the transplant world, he felt moved to spread awareness and find more donors.
“He started working with the (Cincinnati) Reds, the (Atlanta) Braves, the (Philadelphia) Phillies, and the (Detroit) Tigers in Major League Baseball to have Living Donor Awareness Games. He’s also worked with several minor league and college teams.”
During the time that Galbenski and his wife Lynn were raising awareness through sports, Mark McIntosh, a former Denver sportscaster, was looking for his donor. He recently found his donor and felt moved to find more donors.
“Mark found me and we found Dave and now we are all working together,” Perham said.
The event Tuesday at Hillenbrand will be the first Living Donor Awareness Game involving a collegiate softball program.
“I can’t think of a better, more prestigious place to have it,” stated Perham, who came to this area when her family moved from Iowa to Benson when she was in high school.
“I’m so thankful for my time as a Wildcat and thankful for the chance to share my story of being a living donor with the community that raised me.”
