Nearly 20 years ago, Ignacio Holtz was suffering from chronic kidney disease.

In desperate need of a donor, his wife, Beatriz, made the life-saving sacrifice of a healthy kidney. Not long after, he joined a Rotary club and was inspired to help others in need.

Since then, Ignacio has founded and dedicated himself to an organ donation program in partnership with the Rotary Foundation. Heart 2 Heart, which is a collaboration between Mexican and US Rotary clubs, designed to save the lives of young people in need of kidney transplants and to help them find donors.

Every day, Ignacio and his team screen donors, recipients, negotiates rates and offer logistical support to those families who need it most. To date, Ignacio’s program has saved over 500 lives.

He still speaks with his first ever patient, then a 15-year-old girl, whose uncle gave his kidney to help her. Ignacio’s program enabled her to live a full and healthy life, and she is now a mother to her own little girl. It is these stories of the young men and women that Beatriz and Ignacio have saved, and the lives they go on to lead, which motivate and inspire them.

 

Ignacio Holtz

Giving Hero of Rotary Club International