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SALISBURY, MD--Michael Jessup director of annual giving at Salisbury State University who has had kidney and pancreas transplants, recently returned to Johns Hopkins University to talk to some 125 first-year medical students about how he stays healthy. 

“I’ve made it a point to be visible and to give other people hope,” he said. “The fact is that organ donation is tremendous.” 

Accompanied by his physician, Dr. Lloyd Ratner, Jessup talked to students about how he lives with the effects of the transplants, such as a weakened immune system from his medications. 

“My family and the campus know about my situation and look out for my health,” Jessup said. “If someone is sick, they avoid me so I don’t catch what they have.”

He discussed immunological principles as they relate to his three types of conditions:  Type I Juvenile Diabetes, live donor renal transplantation and cadaver donor pancreas transplantation.

Since the transplants, Jessup has become active in the National Kidney Foundation and hosts the Cadillac Golf Invitational at the Ocean Pines Golf & Country Club. The money raised by the tournament goes to help transplant candidates on the Eastern Shore find organs and tissues.

Jessup and his wife Kim live in Ocean Pines and are the parents of two children, Emily, 3, and Tyler, 4-months.

For information visit the University’s Web site at www.salisbury.edu, the Kidney Foundation of the Eastern Shore at 410-546-9228, tournament information call 410-641-5952 or 410-543-6030.