At the age of 6, she was introduced to football, cheerleading, and she couldn’t imagine herself doing anything else.
At the age of 14, Tanasia underwent a pulmonary valve replacement and received a donor heart valve, tissue donation, and she had to quit cheering.
By the time she was a junior in high school, her family had moved to Texas. With much encouragement from her family, Tanasia tried out for her high school cheer team in her senior year and made varsity. Soon after getting back into cheer, Tanasia was honored to meet her donor’s family. She was nervous and didn’t know what to say, but her donor’s family embraced her and told her all about her donor, their daughter. “They told me what she was like, which made me realize how lucky I was to have received the blessing of her donation. I realized I shouldn’t take my surgery for granted, and that I should live my life fully with no regrets. I am now able to do what I love and more. Being able to talk to my donor’s family opened my eyes to the magnitude of the blessing that was bestowed upon me.” Tanasia is now happy and healthy, and doing the things she loves because someone said yes to donation.
