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Hello Reader,

​Alison Conklin was 42 years old when her doctor told her she had six months to live without a new heart. It was the same age her mother had been when she died of the same disease — hypertrophic cardiomyopathy — right in front of her. Alison was 14.

Months later, she was living inside an NYU hospital room with floor-to-ceiling windows, watching the Empire State Building change colors every night. She had no idea if a matching heart would come in time. She had no idea if she'd survive the surgery once it did. And she had no idea, if she made it through, what her life would even look like on the other side.

That last question turned out to be the one nobody could answer. Every transplant story Alison found — on Google, on social media, anywhere — followed the same arc: trauma, then the gift of an organ, and then the story simply stopped. Nothing about the after. So a year after her own transplant, she started building the thing she'd needed and couldn't find: Bonus Days, a print magazine for transplant patients, their families, and everyone who cares for them.

Seven issues in, Bonus Days has become something closer to a community than a magazine — dietitians sharing approved recipes, living donors describing what that choice felt like, caregivers and deceased donors' families telling their side, even the pilots who fly organs across the country answering the questions no one thinks to ask. NYU, Penn, Yale, UT Southwestern, and Temple now buy it in bulk for their transplant clinics and waiting rooms, and none of them have stopped reordering.

For the clinicians listening, Alison's ask is small and specific: turn around from the computer. Look the patient in the eye. Give them a minute before you deliver the news that's about to reorganize their life. She still remembers the night nurse who sat with her before her transplant and told her to stop looking at the summit — just look at the step right in front of you. Four years later, she says the hardest part was never the surgery. It was learning that being here — grocery shopping for her son, watching him leave for grad school — is enough.

Here's my question for you this week: who in your care needs you to turn around from the screen, even for sixty seconds, before you say the hard thing?

You can find Alison and Bonus Days at bonusdaysmag.com.

Please share this newsletter with anyone you know waiting for, working in, or received a transplant. Help us spread the word to encourage the thousands of people.

🎧 Listen to the podcast sneak peek episode below and listen to the full episode on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, Podbean, or Amazon Music.

Stay mindful and keep leading,
Lillian
Founder & CEO

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