Kidney donor raises elevation and awareness

For Cloquet's Julie Samuelson, even climbing a volcano in Guatemala can feel like home.

"It got pretty serious, dealing with elevation and when the weather turned to crud," she said. "It was kind of like getting socked in by Lake Superior with the icky winds and fog."

Samuelson, 56, was in South America last month, alongside 17 other kidney donors. They were there to summit three volcanoes across seven days as part of the second One Kidney Climb. The first, in 2022, saw a team of 20 living donors hike to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa.

Samuelson and the other climbers are members of the nonprofit Kidney Donor Athletes. Founded in 2018, the group embarks on challenges to showcase the importance of being a donor and illustrate how donors can live normal lives afterward.

Samuelson described the week of Dec. 2-8 as one "full of belly laughs."

"We all came from different paths, but ended up being the same in that we gave up a kidney," Samuelson said.

The group climbed the volcanoes named Pacaya, Acatenango and Atitlan across the seven days, which featured two one-day hikes and one two-day overnight hike on the middle volcano. The hikes were progressively more challenging, with changing microclimates and terrain that would shift between lava rock and needle-covered walking paths not unlike those at Pine Valley, where Samuelson trained with her dogs for nine months leading up to the challenge.

"Because of the elevation change and steepness of volcanoes, I would say it was at least an 8," Samuelson said, when asked to rate the difficulty of the hiking on a 0-10 scale.

Since recovering from her kidney donation in February 2021, Samuelson has lived a normal life, she said. In training for the challenge, she would climb the stairs at the Cloquet ice arena on bad-weather days or hike outdoors using a weighted backpack to mimic the load she'd carry in Guatemala.

"It's a definite need, and I don't notice that I'm missing a kidney except for water intake," she said. "I'm more conscious about that and staying hydrated. That's the only change."

Retired from the 148th Fighter Wing in Duluth, Samuelson worked in airfield management and once deployed to Iraq. Her husband, Steve, is also retired from the 148th.

Samuelson has donated blood her entire life.

"You're helping save a lot of lives by doing a small thing," she said.

So when a Denfeld classmate from the class of 1986 expressed his need for a kidney on social media, Samuelson joined a flurry of classmates who looked into offering one. None of them tested compatible enough to be a direct donor. Months later, when the classmate posted a second time about his deteriorating condition, Samuelson acted again. She asked Mayo Clinic in Rochester if there was anything else supporters could do. That's when clinic officials suggested a paired exchange program.

A match was found for Samuelson's former classmate, and her kidney was matched with a woman from Aurora, Minnesota, resulting in transplants for both.

She described the transplant as a calming experience.

"Surgery and recovery was really easy," she said. "I eased back into activity."

She met her kidney recipient on the 1-year anniversary of their transplant, and keeps in touch with her classmate, via text message, mostly. Everyone is doing really well.

Despite applying for the Kidney Donor Athletes three-volcano challenge, Samuelson was surprised when she was selected. She described Guatemala as very green and laid-back. During their hike, the group stopped once to cook a pizza on a smoldering lava rock. Stray dogs roamed the towns and hillsides.

"They said we'd see a lot of dogs, but I didn't anticipate how many," she said. "They kind of just followed us up the volcano."

The third volcano tested Samuelson more than the others. It was a roughly 12-hour hike, and when the group was within 1.7 miles of the summit, Samuelson said she wanted out.

"That equated to two more hours and I just said I couldn't do any more," she recalled.

But her roommate, a woman from New Hampshire, and one of the guides encouraged Samuelson to fight through the mental fatigue. A regular member of First Lutheran Church in Duluth, Samuelson also said she called on her faith to overcome.

And she did.

"It was a challenge," Samuelson said. "Our team leader told us, 'That's why we picked you.'"

Samuelson and her husband moved to Cloquet after becoming empty nesters. They'd raised three children in Duluth, and her husband desired to leave the city. They found a place in Erickson Acres.

"It's been an adjustment," she said. "But it's a nice and quiet neighborhood. And there are lots of places for the dogs to roam."

As part of her participation in the volcano challenge, Samuelson had to reach out to the news media to amplify her message, as well as fundraise for the cause of kidney donation. Samuelson's story first appeared on WDIO News in Duluth in November.

She also exceeded her goal of $4,000 and the group, in total, raised $100,000.

According to Kidney Donor Athletes, there are 97,000 people on the national kidney transplant waiting list, and 13 people die each day while they're waiting for a transplant.

"It just seemed to make sense," Samuelson said. "I can help someone else out, so why not?"