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NATCHEZ – Four cyclists on a charity ride promoting kidney donation will wrap their journey in Natchez on Sept. 27.

Organizers of the 4Women, 4Kidneys, 444Miles, 4Days bike ride said the journey is to promote the gift of life through living donations and includes four women, all kidney donors, who will bike the entire 444 miles of the Natchez Trace Parkway over four days. Riders will share their personal stories of living donation before, during, and after the ride.

“Although living kidney donation is becoming more common — a record 6,860 living donors donated a kidney in 2019 — some people may hesitate to become a living donor because they have heard incorrect information about the kidney donation process,” organizer Diane Mills said. “We want to show that donors can lead full, active lives after donation.”

The bike ride is funded in part by The National Kidney Registry, Donate Life Mississippi/MS Organ Recovery Agency, and Kidney Donor Athletes, with additional support from Explore Ridgeland (Ridgeland, MS), TERRY (women’s bicycling clothing), Untapped (maple syrup sports nutrition), Bivo (water bottles), and Kula Cloth.

Mills said the riders expect to arrive in Natchez around 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 27.  The ride will begin Tuesday, Sept. 24. In the meantime, she said anyone interested in supporting the cause, becoming a donor or simply wanting to hear more from the four bicyclists, can contact her at 4women4kidneys@gmail.com or on Facebook at 4women 4kidneys 444miles 4days or

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558017630525&mibextid=LQQJ4d.

The four bicyclists for this year’s event are Becky Bussey, of Colorado, Anna Cannington of Mississippi, Mills of Mississippi, and Rebekah Thomas of Vermont.

Becky Bussey is a non-directed kidney donor; her surgery in 2020 was at AdventHealth (formerly Centura Transplant) in Denver. She currently resides in Colorado. She was inspired to donate her “spare” kidney after listening to a podcast about living organ donation. As a non-directed, or altruistic donor, Bussey didn’t know anyone needing a kidney; she allowed her transplant center to find whoever could benefit and was a match. She later learned that a woman who lived near her was her recipient.

Anna Cannington decided to become a donor after reading about a man whom she had not met but was part of the same weight-lifting community. She was approved as a direct match and donated her kidney in 2019 at INTEGRIS Health Nazih Zuhdi Transplant Institute in Oklahoma City. Cannington currently lives in Mississippi and has competed in several Donor Games events, as well as, two Donor Games Championships. Her sister, inspired by Cannington’s journey, donated through the National Kidney Registry in Portland in April of this year, providing a voucher to someone she picked out from kidneysearchfoundation.org.

Diane Mills, event organizer, currently lives in Mississippi. In 2010, Mills donated a kidney to a friend at Barnes-Jewish Transplant Center in St. Louis. When her friend, who they knew had hereditary kidney disease and would one day need a donor, told Mills that it was time for her to seek a transplant, she responded by saying, “look no further, I’m your match” (not knowing the likelihood of being a match was slim). At almost 14 years post-donation, Mills has been a living donor longer than the other riders – showing that donation hasn’t negatively impacted her health in that time.

Rebekah Thomas is a non-directed kidney AND liver donor currently living in Vermont. Thomas has participated in other events to highlight living donation, including Kidney Donor Athletes’ One Kidney Climb: Kilimanjaro in 2022. Thomas is a teacher and was inspired to donate after witnessing a student receive life-altering liver and kidney transplants. Years later, in 2018, she decided to move forward as a donor and ultimately donated both a lobe of her liver and a kidney at the same hospital where her student had her transplants.