Julie Shepherd

Type of Donation:             Organ, tissue and cornea donor

Age and Location:             Age 17 – Jefferson City, MT

Donation Date:                  January 26, 2017

Sponsor:                               Honored by LifeCenter Northwest

JULIE’S STORY

Though Julie Shepherd was fiercely competitive and an exceptional athlete, she also had a big heart that extended empathy and kindness to friends and strangers alike. In her short 17 years, her generosity touched the lives of many. Many of her teachers have remembered how her energy, humor, and outgoing personality lit up the rooms and hallways of the school like nothing they had seen before.

“We are still finding out about all the lives she touched through her kindness,” says her father, Derrek. “We’ve heard stories from a wide span of people including the family of a non-verbal autistic child who would go to Julie’s work just to see her smile. Julie had also recently cut her hair to make a donation to an organization that provides recipients with wigs for free. She was an amazing person.”

While she brought enormous joy and light into the lives of others, she battled a constant darkness within herself. The people who knew Julie were shocked to hear that she struggled with severe depression. Although she talked to a therapist and a psychiatrist and took her medication every day, her mind controlled her reality until she was unable to endure the suffering any longer. Since her death, her family has talked openly about her depression hoping more can be done for the people who struggle with the disease.

Just as she did in life, Julie helped numerous people in her passing by becoming an organ, eye, and tissue donor.

“The donation process has helped to ease the pain of her death by giving us the knowledge that other people’s lives were helped,” Derrek says. “Her drive to be the best, to compete with all her abilities, to explore, and above all, to love and care for those around her has given our lives new meaning. We love the idea that something good came from Julie’s death.”

Julie saved the lives of six people through the donation of her pancreas, liver, lungs, both kidneys and her heart, which was described by the transplant surgeon as the “mythical perfect heart.” Anyone who knew her would agree with that sentiment.