Dawn Robertson was only 23 years old, a mother of two with another child on the way, when she was killed in a drunken-driving accident on a dark highway outside Henderson, Nev.

A soft-hearted person who took in stray animals and always had a kind word for everyone, she would have wanted something positive to come from her death. And something has.Dawn's heart now beats inside Kally Heslop's chest, and there isn't a day that Kally doesn't offer a quiet word of thanks to the young woman who made it possible for a stranger from Kaysville, Utah, to watch her four children grow up.

"No gift is harder to give than the gift of life, and no gift is harder to receive," says Kally, 40, who recently marked the 11-year anniversary of her heart transplant and is in excellent health. "Having Dawn's heart has changed my life. It's made me want to take advantage of every minute."

Over a Free Lunch of fresh halibut at Salt Lake City's Market Street Grill, Kally, a slim, down-to-earth woman who favors faded jeans and flannel shirts, spoke lovingly of the woman who enabled her to go on living.

"It took me five years to get the courage to write to her parents in Nevada and thank them for their daughter's gift," she says quietly. "It was hard to deal with the fact that Dawn's children were without their mother, and here I was, alive, with her heart."

Kally was 29 years old and had recently given birth to her fourth child when she had a massive heart attack and learned she needed a new heart. A rare condition related to pregnancy had thinned her arteries and torn her heart's inner wall from the outer wall. Only 70 such cases were on record at the time, and only nine of those women had survived.

Without a transplant, Kally, too, would die.

"I wasn't going to do it at first," she says, "because I didn't want to benefit from the death of another person. Plus, I didn't think I'd be able to do everything I'd done before."

But her doctor kept sending healthy transplant recipients to her room for visits, and it wasn't long before Kally changed her mind. Just three days after putting her name on the transplant list, a phone call came from Nevada. Dawn Robertson's heart was an excellent match.

"I can't describe what it feels like to wake up knowing you have somebody else's heart," says Kally. "I could never call it 'my heart.' It was always 'the' heart or 'this' heart. It didn't feel right to claim it as my own."

As soon as she was able, though, Kally set out to put her gift to good use. "I was initially told I would live five years, so I took off running," she says. "I was so grateful to have a chance to make memories with my children. It became my mission to give something back."

Eleven years later, Kally Heslop is still making the most of every moment. She has dedicated the past two years to raising funds for a group home where people waiting for transplants can stay with their families at no cost.

View Comments

"When an organ becomes available, you have to be at the hospital within an hour," says Kally. "So if you're from a remote area, you have to rent an apartment near the hospital or say no to a transplant and die. Right now, there are people living in trailers in the hospital parking lot. That isn't right."

Sometime this summer, when Kally opens the group home, there will be many people to thank, but one person in particular will be on her mind.

"Eleven years later, I'm still searching for the right words," she says. "How do you say 'thank you' to the person who has given you the rest of your life?"

Have a story? Let's hear it over lunch. E-mail your name, phone number and what's on your mind to freelunch@desnews.com or send a fax to 466-2851. You can also write me at the Deseret News, P.O. Box 1257, Salt Lake City, UT 84110.

Join the Conversation
Looking for comments?
Find comments in their new home! Click the buttons at the top or within the article to view them — or use the button below for quick access.