Terry Lee Snow
"Our decision and Terry’s gift helped seven people."
by Kathy and John Snow
In March of 1998 our son, Terry Lee Snow, was in a motorcycle accident in Arizona. Nine days later, that accident claimed his life.
On March 11, 1998, my husband John and I made the difficult decision to remove Terry from a ventilator and donate his organs. He was 19 years old. Our decision and Terry’s gift helped seven people in the states of Arizona, California and Nevada.
The decision was very hard. So much goes through your mind, but ultimately we felt donating his organs was the right thing to do and that Terry would want to do it.
One year later, John and I had the privilege of meeting Tracy Copeland, Terry’s liver recipient. After meeting her we spent the next four days together as though we were old friends. Since that meeting we have stayed in contact through phone calls, letters, visits, and emails. We also work as a team to promote organ donation.
From that meeting we learned that Tracy is an avid cyclist and belongs to a cycling team. Her cycling team now wears a jersey symbol with the Donate Life symbol on the front and “In memory of Terry Snow” on the back.
In 2002 and 2004 Tracy competed in the U.S. Transplant Games. We attended the games as her cheering section. Tracy ended up winning 2 gold medals. My son donated the liver that helped power her victory.
The decision to donate Terry’s organs has led us down a path in life that we never anticipated and it has been filled with great joy.
