💚 19-YEAR-OLD JUSTIN LEPRI NEEDS A KIDNEY — COULD SOMEONE READING THIS BE HIS LIFELINE?
Just weeks after celebrating one of the biggest milestones of his young life, 19-year-old Justin Lepri of St. Augustine, Florida, found himself facing a devastating medical crisis.
In May, Justin was looking forward to graduating from Nease High School in Ponte Vedra Beach. Instead, he was hospitalized.
After nearly two weeks in the hospital and extensive testing, doctors discovered that a rare genetic disorder had silently damaged his kidneys, leaving Justin with advanced Stage 5 kidney failure.
💔 Now, this young man needs a kidney transplant, and his family is urgently searching for a living kidney donor.
🎓 FROM GRADUATION TO A FIGHT FOR HIS FUTURE
Justin’s family describes him as creative and artistic 🎨, passionate about photography and videography 📸, someone who loves nature and the outdoors 🌲, kind-hearted, funny and resilient ❤️ — a young man with dreams, adventures and milestones still ahead of him ✨.
Despite his illness, Justin still walked across the graduation stage only days after returning home from the hospital. His teachers even visited him in the hospital with gifts and encouraging messages.
His mother, Madelin Lepri, says Justin’s illness does not define him — and his family is determined to help him move forward.
🩺 JUSTIN IS NOW ON THE NATIONAL KIDNEY TRANSPLANT WAITING LIST
His family is searching for a living donor because a living-donor transplant could shorten the wait for a kidney. His medical team has encouraged the family to search for a donor before dialysis becomes necessary.
🩸 WHO CAN CONSIDER DONATING?
According to the family’s published appeal, potential donors should be 18 or older, be in good physical and mental health, have blood type A or O, and be willing to undergo the transplant center’s confidential medical evaluation.
You don’t have to assume you’re a match — the transplant team makes that determination through medical testing. Completing the initial questionnaire does not obligate you to donate, and Justin’s family emphasizes there is no pressure or expectation.
❤️ WHAT IF YOU DON’T KNOW JUSTIN?
That’s okay. A living kidney donor can be someone who comes forward after learning his story. And if a potential donor isn’t directly compatible, UF Health has a kidney-paired-donation program that can link incompatible pairs with other pairs.
📞 HOW TO BECOME A POTENTIAL DONOR FOR JUSTIN
🏥 Transplant Center: UF Health Shands Transplant Center, Gainesville, Florida
📝 Start with the UF donor questionnaire: https://redcap.ctsi.ufl.edu/redcap/surveys/?s=XNCTAY4CHJDHM44
☎️ UF Health Kidney Transplant Program: 352-273-8821
📧 Email: neph@medicine.ufl.edu
📍 1600 SW Archer Road, Gainesville, FL 32610
The transplant team — not the family — will determine whether a potential donor is medically eligible.
🙏 IF YOU CAN’T DONATE, PLEASE SHARE JUSTIN’S STORY
Share this story, post it on social media, and send it to friends, colleagues and family. You may not be Justin’s donor, but someone you know might be.
💚 Graduation was supposed to be the beginning of Justin’s next chapter. Let’s help him have a future filled with more photographs, more adventures, more laughter and more milestones.
🩵 ONE DONOR COULD CHANGE THE COURSE OF HIS LIFE.
#KidneyForJustin #HelpJustin #LivingKidneyDonor #DonateLife
Could you be a living kidney donor? Join our kidney donor list. Signing up never commits you.
Be a Kidney Donor →Help Justin Lepri Today
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