My name is Anthony Thompson. I am 63 years old and married with three children. I am a former member of the United States Army, stationed in Schweinfurt, Germany and Fort Ord, California. My specialty was Communications and Secure Systems. I am grateful for the training and the experience that I received which laid the foundation on how I would grow to be a productive citizen. I was raised by my grandparents, one of which I still care for (at 98 years old, WWII veteran). They did the best they could for me, sending me to private school, enrolling me in a band, and scouting. Immediately after graduating high school, I decided to enlist and off to Fort Sill I went.
I breezed through AIT training, my specialty was computer repair, and then I was given the opportunity to learn secure communications. From there I went to Europe and was afforded the opportunity to learn another language and travel the theater. I was decorated with an Overseas Service Ribbon.
After completing my enlistment, I enrolled in Kingsborough Community College as a Broadcast Management major and worked my way through college. Upon graduating, I realized that working in the “industry” was not what I expected and began a career in education. I worked at New York University for four years and then moved on to become the College Director of the Bedford Stuyvesant “I Have a Dream” Program. This program assisted inner city students who were deemed to have little chance of completing college.
I facilitated assisting them with college applications, college tours, and a scholarship upon high school graduation. After a decade with them, I spent the next seventeen years as the Assistant Director of Financial Aid at Pratt Institute and then as the Associate Director of Operations at the School of Visual Arts. Working in the community has been a rewarding experience for me. To this day, I am still in touch with some of my Dreamers. We speak about their successes, challenges, and families. It is wonderful to see them as successful individuals.
During these years, I managed to raise my children, train and receive first degree Black Belt in both Tang Soo Do and Moo Duk Kwan Tae Kwon Do, and go back to college and complete my baccalaureate in Communications. I graduated Cum Laude. My three children (two girls and a boy, in that order) are all college graduates, and very successful in their respective careers. My eldest is the only one that has blessed me with a grandchild, who is seventeen. We are so looking forward for her to go to college.
As part of my ongoing community service, I also served on my coop’s Board of Directors and helped orchestrate a 100-million-dollar capital improvement project in the middle of the Covid outbreak. I served on the board for six years.
About thirty years ago, I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. I visited the doctor regularly, and in 2014, I had a partial kidney removal on my left side. The surgery was successful, but 18 months later, my right kidney received the same diagnosis and had to be partially removed.
I was alright for a few years until 2022, when my left kidney had to be removed. I began hemodialysis in October of that year, with my kidney removal in November. At that point, I was advised that I should start looking for a donor. I joined ancestry.com to try to locate my paternal relatives to see if I could obtain a donor. As it so happens, I found out that my paternal family had a predisposition for hypertension and kidney disease.
At this point in life, they were either getting their own dialysis treatments for unwilling to depart with a kidney for fear of needing one later in life. Unfortunately, each of my children have their own medical condition which prevents them from becoming donors.
Given a second chance, I would love to get back into decent physical condition to practice martial arts without becoming fatigued as I do now. Currently, I am taking a master’s class in photography. I began my work with a camera when I was stationed in Germany and learned darkroom developing.
Now a days, I have a digital camera that I photograph as much as I can and hope with better instruction that I can eventually become an Astro photographer when I retire in three years. I am happy married to the love of my life. She has been so supportive above and beyond what anyone could hope for with the side effects and treatments that I endure on a daily basis.
I ask that you consider donating to this cause, if not to help me, help another.
Thank you.
For medically cleared donors, giving the gift of life through living kidney donation has been proven to be very safe. DOVE will assist all prospective donors throughout the process and make sure they do not incur any out-of-pocket expenses related to the evaluation or surgery. A healthy person can live a normal life with one kidney and save Tony‘s life with the other!
Your support, whether through spreading the word on social media or considering becoming a donor, can make a profound impact on his life and the life of his family!
Please click on the link below if you would like to learn more OR call (551) 233-1611