Mother with ties to Columbiana County writes letter to mother of son’s organ donor

Debbie Lyons-Blythe, the Kids, Cows and Grass blogger, is a Kansas cattle rancher and mother of five. When one of her twin boys was diagnosed with Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis and placed on the transplant list months after he graduated high school, she was shocked. By the end of August 2014, when her son’s health was worsening, he received a new liver from an organ donor.

To express her gratitude, Blythe writes a letter to the organ donor’s mother, just in time for National Donor Day on Feb. 14. Naming the organ donor “Superman,” she explains how her child’s gift was able to save her son’s life. Blythe recognizes the mother’s pain in losing her child, but assures the mother that her child is a hero. Read Blythe’s letter here.

Blythe’s mother, Jan Ferguson-Lyons, is a Columbiana County, Ohio, native. She was a 4-H member who grew up on a cattle farm in the 1950s in the southeastern part of the county. Ferguson and her husband moved to Kansas in the 1970s. She started a ranch, and Blythe operates one of the satellites of that first ranch. Jan was named the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association president in 2004.

Related: In Ohio or Kansas, woman’s home tied to the cattle industry