Tulsa, Oklahoma · Paired donor needed
John Watkins is a husband, father, and assistant principal at Ellen Ochoa Elementary. He has a rare genetic kidney disease and has been on the transplant list since fall 2025. You don't have to match his blood type to save his life.
As seen on News On 6 · KOTV · Union Public Schools · Health Matters with TSET
The story
John is a Union lifer. He graduated from Union High School in 2004 and has worked for Union Public Schools since 2005 — first as an Extended Day Program assistant, then as a teacher at the old Briarglen Elementary starting in 2011. In 2022–2023 he was named Teacher of the Year at Grove Elementary, and in 2023 he was promoted to assistant principal intern at Ellen Ochoa, where he serves today. He's the kind of educator parents pray their kids end up with.
He's a husband and a father of two daughters, both under thirteen. He plays guitar on the worship team at Foundations Church in Broken Arrow — there every Sunday morning, in the band, doing the work. Senior pastor Justin Graves has asked the Foundations family to be praying for John.
Anyone who knows him will tell you the same thing: John is remarkably loyal, and he doesn't complain — not the way most of us would, not even now. In the fall of 2025 he was officially placed on the kidney transplant list with a rare genetic kidney disease (Autosomal Dominant Tubulointerstitial Kidney Disease, MUC1). His function is slowly failing. He needs a living donor.
His lifelong friend Kraig Mewbourne, a teacher at Edison Preparatory, volunteered to give him a kidney. Kraig wasn't a match. But that's not the end of the story — it's the start of it. John and Kraig are enrolled in a paired kidney donation program, which means a healthy stranger anywhere in the country can be the one who finally brings John his kidney.
"That immediately changed my outlook. It immediately made me have hope again."
— John, to News On 6
Watch his story
KOTV reporter Amy Slanchik sat down with John and Kraig in March 2026 to cover Ascension St. John's new paired-donation program — the first of its kind in Oklahoma. Three and a half minutes. It's worth your time.
News On 6 · KOTV
The key idea
John is enrolled in paired kidney donation through the Alliance for Paired Kidney Donation (APKD) — the first program of its kind in Oklahoma, now offered at Ascension St. John in Tulsa.
Here's how it works: you offer to be tested as a kidney donor. If your kidney isn't a match for John specifically, that's okay — a Nobel-prize-winning algorithm finds a recipient who is a match for your kidney. In exchange, someone else's donor (who matches John) gives their kidney to John.
One donor starts a chain. A chain saves John. And often, several other people too.
What you can do
Start a confidential living donor screening with the Ascension St. John Transplant Center in Tulsa. There's no obligation — the team will walk you through every step.
Tell them you're inquiring on behalf of John Watkins, paired donation program.
Most people who get tested heard about it from a friend. Send this page to someone who'd want to know.
John and his family are people of faith. Their friends and church have been praying since fall 2025. Join them.
Father, you knit John together and you know every cell of his body. We ask you to sustain him, to strengthen his kidneys for the wait, and to prepare the right donor — known and unknown to us — to come forward. Multiply this story. Use it to save lives beyond just his. We trust you with the timing. In Jesus' name, amen.
A kidney transplant is life-saving and life-changing — and it comes with months of medical costs, travel, and recovery for both John and his family.
Updates
News On 6's Health Matters with TSET ran a follow-up segment on John and Kraig's paired donation journey. Watch the segment →
Union Public Schools published an official call to action on its district site, asking the community to consider getting tested as a living donor for one of its own. Read the district article →
KOTV's Amy Slanchik covered John and Kraig's enrollment in Ascension St. John's new APKD partnership — the first paired donation program of its kind in Oklahoma. Read the story →
John officially joined the kidney transplant waiting list at Ascension St. John in Tulsa.
Scan · Share · Save a life
Print this code on a sticker, tape it inside your classroom door, slap it on your water bottle. Every scan is a chance for someone to start the chain.
kidney4john.com
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