Please meet our friend, LI TRIO volunteer Taylor Clarke. Taylor is grateful for the Gift Of Life, truly believes in paying it forward and is a dedicated Organ Donation Awareness Ambassador.

My story began in the fall of 2015. I was 19 years old living away from home and beginning my second year of college. I was thriving at school and enjoying my new found freedom. In the blink of an eye, my entire life changed.

I began to feel tired all the time. I was losing weight rapidly, barely eating and struggling to find the energy to just get out of bed in the morning. I was becoming less and less like myself with each passing day. My parents made the decision to withdraw me from college and move me back home where I would undergo numerous medical tests in an attempt to find out what was possibly wrong.

Doctors first thought it was a vitamin deficiency, then thought maybe I had a muscle disease. I went through test after test but everything was inconclusive. My health was deteriorating by the second and all that my family and I wanted was an answer.

In early December of that year, I was rushed to the local hospital, South Nassau Communities Hospital. My mother thought I was having a stroke. From that hospital, I was transferred to North Shore University Hospital where it was determined that my heart was failing, rapidly. I was placed on ECMO and it was determined that I would need a heart transplant. I was airlifted to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, where I was put on the regional transplant waiting list.

I was given an LVAD to keep my failing heart pumping and to ultimately keep me alive. I remained in the hospital for five months and during those five months I had to learn to walk again and regain strength in my muscles.

On April 19, 2016 I received news that a perfect and healthy heart was available and ready for me. I was wheeled into surgery and my healthy heart was transplanted on April 20. I have been my healthiest and best self ever since.

I was able to go home just 12 days after my surgery and resume my normal life. Since then, I have re-enrolled in college, this time at a different school much closer to home. I attend Hofstra University where I am pursuing a degree in journalism.

I actively write about my experiences and my life post-transplant on my personal blog, with hopes that by sharing my story I can help others who are undergoing obstacles and struggles in life.

I wake up every day with my donor on my mind. Since my transplant, I have made it my mission to pay it forward in any way possible. Thank you will never be enough to describe the gratitude I feel for the complete stranger who saved my life and who gave me a chance to live each coming day to the fullest. I hope that by volunteering and sharing my story, I can inspire others to enroll to be an organ donor and to give the best gift of all- the gift of life.