WEBVTT

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(bright music)

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<v Aaron>It's so easy to give back</v>

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the way we do it there at Comcast.

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(moves into calm music)

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Alright team, good morning.

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I wanna talk to you a little bit about

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United Way, United Way campaign.

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My name is Aaron Saenz.

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I'm a network operations supervisor for the chemo office.

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Some of you know my situation,

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where I had a chemo transplant about six years ago.

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[Aaron] I was born in Houston, Texas,

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graduated from Deer Park High School in '93,

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and just been working for Comcast pretty much

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as soon as I graduated.

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Been there for 21 and a half years.

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I had acute renal failure for a few years,

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and I was maintaining, everything was doing fine,

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and then one day I just started to...

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really wasn't feeling very well,

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and went into kidney failure.

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<v ->It was one of those, "I can't believe this is happening,"</v>

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kinda deal for us.

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<v Aaron>The first thing we thought about were the kids.</v>

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<v ->I was 10 at the time.</v>

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I didn't know what a kidney transplant was at first,

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but they sat us down, me and my brother,

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told us what it was like and what's gonna happen.

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<v ->The first thing they tell you is,</v>

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"A living donor is always better."

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<v ->The moment he gave me that information</v>

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I was on the phone before five o'clock.

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<v ->When we realize that my wife was compatible</v>

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we started the process of my wife becoming my donor.

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<v ->It seemed like forever, but it went fairly quick.</v>

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It was right about three months for start to finish.

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<v ->They tell you when the recipient</v>

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gets the kidney they wake up energized,

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but the donor's the one going through the rough times,

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so in my wife's situation she actually had

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to go in for a second surgery,

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because she had internal bleeding with that one,

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so now she wasn't just dealing

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with her body changing with donating a kidney,

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she actually had that other complication

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she had to deal with.

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<v ->But in the end, I mean, I wouldn't change anything.</v>

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I wouldn't hesitate.

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<v ->It was a good thing, her doing that, so...</v>

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Going through the process of talking with the donor

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you have to go to a financial consulting,

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you gotta talk to social workers,

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and they made me aware of the Kidney Foundation.

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<v ->You're too busy worrying about the health</v>

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of your loved one, and you're not thinking

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of the extra financial burden that it can sometimes bring,

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so with United Way and the Kidney Foundation

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we were able to receive some of those funds

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to help pay for his doctor's visits and his co-pays

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and even the hospital stay,

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and it was a blessing.

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<v ->When you go through something like that</v>

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you realize what's important.

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Coming out of that situation, building that family bond

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is the most important thing to me.

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<v ->We do a lot together, and Aaron makes it a priority.</v>

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<v ->Build memories is one of my biggest priority</v>

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with my kids, with my wife, and to make sure

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that we spend as much time together as possible.

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<v ->He's been giving me advice on what to do</v>

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and what not to do when I have questions.

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<v ->I'm definitely a daddy's girl for sure.</v>

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He's just, he's always there for me

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when I need him, and I love him.

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<v ->It's so easy to give back the way we do it there</v>

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at the company, the way we do it at Comcast.

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I've told my team, "It's not how much you give.

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"It's just give whatever you can."

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What I'm trying to say is through the United Way campaign

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we can actually give back and pay it forward.

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<v ->"Pay it forward" means a lot to Aaron.</v>

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He's helped me understand paying it forward.

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<v ->He realize now how important it is</v>

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to give back to these organization,

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because these organization help so many people.

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<v ->I give back because I wanna make a difference to someone,</v>

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because somebody made a difference in my life.

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So I want to be able to make a difference in someone else's.

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<v Aaron>I give to the United Way,</v>

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because even the smallest contribution

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can have a big impact.