Laura Gillum of Canonsburg wanted to keep the memory of her son alive.

In 2015, Gillum and her husband, Paul, lost their 2-year-old, Dean, in a swimming pool drowning accident.

The couple donated Dean’s organs to help people in need.

A few weeks ago, Laura Gillum, 46, became an altruistic kidney donor, donating the organ to a stranger in honor of her son.

On Friday, she met the recipient of her kidney at Allegheny General Hospital on Pittsburgh’s North Side. His name is Brian Cox. He lives in Aliquippa.

There were smiles, hugs and tears when she met Brian Cox.

“I had two kidneys, and you only need one,” Gillum told Cox. “I saw the impact of organ donation when I met the little boy who has my son’s heart and his family. Organ donation gives life, not only to the recipient but to the entire family. The impact is amazing.

“And I can’t imagine what being on dialysis for kidney failure would be like.”

Cox said he didn’t know how long he would live through the rigors of dialysis.

“When I heard she was going to give me a kidney, I broke down crying,” he said. “I had been waiting and waiting. She gave me my life back, to me a total stranger.”

Cox, 39, of Aliquippa said he didn’t know about the story of Laura Gillum’s son until Thursday. He said he was even more grateful because when people lose a child, they could become bitter.

He said he feels good and can be around to see his daughter graduate from Aliquippa High School. She’s a senior. Plus, he will spend quality time with his girlfriend, Imani.

“There are no words to explain how I feel,” Cox said. “We need more people in the world like Laura. She saved my life.”

The kidney transplant surgery took place March 7. The two were a perfect match, each with an AB blood type.

“Laura is an incredible person,” said Holly Chapman, a nurse and life donor kidney coordinator for Allegheny Health Network. “She was very tenacious in her testing and this was an incredible match that was made.”

Close to 114,000 people nationally, including 2,500 people in western Pennsylvania and West Virginia are waiting for an organ, according to the Center for Organ Recovery & Education.

“We can’t do what we do without people like Laura,” said Dr. Khaled Nashar, a nephrologist with AHN. “It saves lives. Laura delivered a very powerful message.”

After their son died, the Gillums tried to have other children but were unsuccessful. They adopted a baby girl through a friend on Dec. 31.

Laura Gillum said she donated her son’s organs because she knew he would have been raised to be a giving, kind person. One of the recipients, Lennon Cureton of Lexington, S.C., suffered from congenital heart disease. He was 6 months old when he received Dean’s heart.

“There are so many people out there on the waiting list,” she said. “You can change every aspect of a person’s life being a donor. A kidney is not much or a slice of your liver or your lung. You can still have a full life. If I didn’t give my kidney, Brian would have died. And you can’t put a price tag on that. I wanted to do this to make my son proud of me.”

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