Candace Brown Gets Hope and a New Lease on Life

This story is chock full of heroes and it comes with a message of inspiration for anyone battling an illness that requires an organ donation. Candace Brown has been dealing with health issues since she was 11 years old when her skyrocketing blood sugar landed her in a diabetic coma. Now that she is 28 years old, she is faced with a host of new challenges and still managing to keep a smile on her face. Candace was in desperate need of a new pancreas and when word came that there was one waiting, she and her mother rushed to catch the first flight. But the flight was delayed. And then cancelled. With limited time to get to the hospital where the transplant team was waiting, the situation looked bleak, until two women stepped up and started canvassing the crowd for anyone willing to give up two seats on the next flight, so that Candace could make it to the hospital while the pancreas was still viable. The women were ignored or met with "no" as an answer and it wasn't looking good until two men on their way to an important business pitch meeting decided to do the right thing. Dan Aluise and Greg Blair called the president of their company, Joe Varacalli and explained the situation. "We wanted this account, but her life's more important than this," he said and added that "he figured God would work out the rest and he did." The two men were able to make it to their meeting on another flight and Candace was able to make it to her life-saving appointment. It's going to be a long rode to recovery, because even after being monitored in the hospital for some period of time, she will need to stay in a nearby hotel to be sure the post-operative dangers, like the risk of clotting and infection have passed before she and her mother can go home. All this comes at a price and sadly, Candace lost her insurance when she could no longer work because of her illness, so friends and family have been holding fundraisers to help with the medical bills and expenses. If you would like to donate, an account has been set up for her at the Huntington Bank in the area of Ohio where Candace lives. Both Candace and her mother are now committed to being advocates for organ donation. "We're just really going to start campaigning for organ donation," said her mother, Becky Brown, who has seen the miracle of life being given back to people through organ donation first hand, while standing strong for her daughter. Can you count the number of heroes in this story? If you know someone who has gone out of their way to save a life or someone who consistently steps up to do the right thing, nominate them for next week's AmericanTowns Hero.