COTA for Amelia Strong

Our Story

Amelia – My girl is sweet, kind, thoughtful, strong and resilient! Long before Amelia was ever diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Failure stage 5 she was known as the super sweet girl. Her teachers raved about how sweet she always was, making sure they heard a compliment and received a hug. Amelia’s sweet nature was known by all who came into contact with her and she always made sure to leave an impression. This is why when we found out that she was diagnosed with End Stage Renal Disease in May of 2019 so many people outside of our family were devastated. We didn’t know exactly how this journey would look. We had never even heard of this in kids before and to hear she would need dialysis immediately with a transplant in her future was scary, dreadful, heart wrenching and uncertain. Our lives as we knew it had flashed before our eyes. Amelia had just turned 9 on the 28th of April and was diagnosed before the 10th of May. To have imagined that taking her into urgent care for what I felt was a confirmation of allergies and nothing to worry about, so she could perform in her school concert/talent show that evening. It turned into an emergency trip to OHSU PICU with next day results that shook our world. While in an instant things changed, Amelia never changed her sweet spirit. She’s still the girl I’ve always known and now is incredibly confident, resilient and quite frankly a leader. One day Amelia heard the song from the Greatest Showman “This Is Me” and looked at me and said “Mom, did you know this is my favorite song?” I replied no, why? She said “Because this is me! This is who I’m meant to be! I’m meant to have a tube coming out of my belly right now!” As you can imagine I praised her and turned and cried. She doesn’t mourn her care free past but looks every bit to her ever exciting future. She loves hiking, bike riding, MMA, playing with her siblings in the yard and parks. She’s very active and her brother and sister are always by her side living their best lives too!

We have partnered with the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) for assistance with transplant-related expenses. Please consider donating to COTA in honor of Amelia.

The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) helps children and young adults who need a life-saving transplant by providing fundraising assistance and family support. COTA is the nation’s only fundraising organization solely dedicated to raising life-saving dollars in honor of transplant-needy children and young adults. 100% of each contribution made to COTA in honor of our patients helps meet transplant-related expenses. COTA’s services are free to our families, and gifts to COTA are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

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