08/15/2025
Collyn Knoles is a dedicated nurse, wife, and mother of three. She’s spent over two decades caring for others in the ER and as a school nurse. But earlier this year, she chose to give even more by becoming a living kidney donor.
Her inspiration came from a UCHealth newsletter. One story about a woman who had donated both a kidney and part of her liver caught Collyn’s attention. “I wondered if I could do the same,” she said. She went through the evaluation process and was a match.
The decision wasn’t dramatic. It felt, in her words, “like the right thing to do.”
Collyn donated her kidney to a stranger, a man around her age living somewhere in the Denver metro area. She doesn’t know his name, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was the chance to give someone their life back.
As a nurse, she had seen the toll of kidney failure firsthand. And as a mother, she found comfort knowing her own children would now be prioritized should they ever need a transplant.
“The world felt chaotic,” she said. “This was one way I could still do something good.”
Her recovery went smoothly. Six weeks later, she was back to hiking, working, and living her life, just with one less kidney and a heart even fuller.
Collyn’s story reminds us that hope often starts with a simple yes, and that the quietest acts of generosity are often the most powerful.
Learn more about becoming a living donor. You might be the answer someone is hoping for!
