Siblings carry a part of each other in their hearts, always. This couldn't be more true for me and my little brother who, for the first time in a long time, is living his life. And it’s because he has a little piece of me in him.

Lane, four years younger than I, had been sick since he was 12. That’s when we learned he had moderate-to-severe Crohn’s disease. It got worse seven years later, in 2019, when he developed liver problems that meant he’d eventually need a transplant.

That inevitability became a scary reality in January 2024. Lane got really sick. His blood levels kept dropping, and he repeatedly needed blood transfusions.

My little brother couldn’t function. He was just surviving day-to-day. It was time to find a donor.

I was a natural first choice. Watching him be sick for over half his life, it wasn’t even a question in my mind that I would do anything to help him get healthy again. Donating a small piece of my liver seemed like a relatively small ask.

As we went through testing over the next several months, Lane got worse. He nearly died in July. By the end of summer, the transplant team in Rochester had all the test results it needed. I could be the donor. It was surreal.

October 15th, 2024, the day of the transplant, changed my little brother’s life. Everything went relatively well at the hospital. The next day, we saw each other for the first time, and it was very emotional.

This couldn’t have happened without the support of my family and the entire Malone community. More than 50 people signed up to be potential donors. Friends watched my kids and took them to sports when I had to be away for testing and surgery.

Now, I just want to raise awareness about organ donation and its tremendous impact. I’m so proud of my husband, who registered to be a donor after seeing what it meant for Lane and me.

I’m much more sentimental seeing all Lane does now. He goes to the gym. He plays sports and hide-and-seek with my three young kids. My little brother has his life back.

This was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. My daughters remind me of why it was all worth it when they tell people, “Our mommy saved our Uncle Lane’s life.”

Morgan Stone, who lives in Malone, is a nurse practitioner in Alice Hyde Medical Center's Orthopedics & Sports Medicine clinic. She has been with us since 2016.