An All-American, three-time pro bowler and third leading rusher in Green Bay Packer history, John Brockington felt indestructible – until his kidneys began to fail.

In 1971, John Brockington, an All-American at Ohio State University, entered the NFL draft and was immediately chosen to join the Green Bay Packers. Brockington played more than six seasons as a running back with the Packers and ultimately carried them to the National Football Conference (NFC) Central Division Championship.

In 1999, John began to feel different. Initially, he thought it might have been his body getting older, but John would soon become aware of something he thought could never happen to him.

About a year later, John began feeling weak. He visited his doctor for a checkup, and John was stunned by his blood test results – he had kidney failure. “This was serious stuff. I couldn’t believe it,” John said surprisingly. At first, he felt he could maintain his remaining kidney function with diet, exercise and lifestyle changes. These changes did work; however, not for long. Soon after his kidney function began to decrease again, John started dialysis. “I felt like the perfect storm hit. Everything came down at once,” noted John. Along with dialysis, John also had to adjust to a stricter diet, which he disliked very much. He wanted to stay positive, but many things made it difficult to accomplish. “I came home and looked at the diet and everything that I wanted to eat was not on it,” John stressed. Even though he did not like the changes at first, John realized the importance of following the kidney diet.

Dialysis was only a short-term solution for John. “To me, it was monotonous. However, I made the best of it and tried to make it like a football game. I broke it up into four quarters. One hour I would read. The next I would watch television and so on,” said John. He continued dialysis for more than six weeks. He disliked dialysis and fortunately for John transplantation was an option.

In November 2001, Diane Brockington, John’s wife, donated her kidney to her husband. Throughout the entire process, from the failure of his kidneys to receiving his transplant, John remained calm. “I never got scared or depressed. Maybe it came from all my years of playing football. I always kept my head together,” stated John. His positive attitude is attributed to his healthcare team. By trusting his doctor and following the doctor’s instructions, John continues to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

After his transplantation, in 2002 John founded the “John Brockington Foundation” to help kidney patients. In the beginning, John’s foundation worked closely with the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) of San Diego, Calif. “Patient’s Emergency Fund.” “We wanted to help people who couldn’t afford their medical needs. We didn’t want people to have to choose between buying their food or their pills,” said John.

Today, the main focus of the “John Brockington Foundation” is to shrink the gap between the number of people awaiting transplantation and the number of organs available. “We want to educate people on organ donation and to stay in good health. People should talk to their husband, wife, children, mother, father and so on and let them know they want to donate their organs if something should happen to them,” states John.

John’s organization hopes to bring new light to transplantation and show people all the benefits of donating and receiving organs. “We chose to focus John’s foundation on educating people who want to become a donor and, once becoming a donor, sharing that information with others,” said Diane.

More than 30 years ago, John stared into 11 pairs of eyes belonging to a vicious defense and wondered how he was going to out-maneuver them to reach the end zone. Today, John faces the ultimate defense comprised of his health and his dedication to educate others about transplantation. However, watch out because this one-time Packer pro bowler still has plenty of time on the clock and he does not plan on stopping until he reaches that end zone once again.

Today, John and Diane Brockington live in San Diego, Calif. and both work diligently to expand John’s foundation and increase awareness of its cause. They also enjoy going to the beach, movies and finding good restaurants.

This article originally appeared in the September 2004 issue of aakpRENALIFE, Vol. 20, No. 2.

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