When COVID left Highland coach in need of a kidney, Santa delivered a donor

A Highland coach who has been battling health problems received a special Christmas gift this year: A new kidney.

Deryl Cunningham, 50, of Glen Carbon is the varsity basketball coach for Highland High School. In October 2020, he tested positive for COVID-19, which aggravated other underlying health concerns and landed him on the kidney transplant list. For 13 months, he had to keep a catheter implanted in his chest and undergo kidney dialysis to stay alive.

Cunningham’s sister, Charise Walker, took over from there.

“I did not ask any of my family for a kidney,” Cunningham said.

But the family was talking about the situation, and Walker had volunteered right away to donate a kidney to her brother. Unfortunately she was not a match, but other family members tested without telling Cunningham.

Cunningham thought his cousin, Tanya Woods, was visiting St. Louis for work. Then Walker told him she was a match for a kidney and was willing and eager to donate.

“I about fell off the bed,” Cunningham said. “I thought, ‘Am I dreaming?’”

The family had not told Cunningham about the testing in case it there wasn’t a match.

Woods donated her kidney to Cunningham on Dec. 1 at SSM Health St. Louis University Hospital. Within a few days, Cunningham was walking on his own and the catheter was removed.

“I was really grateful for what both of them have done,” he said.

He had been overwhelmed with many of the details, and his sister had been “looking after me” for more than a year. Dialysis days were sometimes 17 hours or more, and sometimes he said he had “struggled.”

Woods had no doubts or reservations about donating her kidney, and Cunningham said he is “very blessed and grateful” as he celebrates Christmas with the family.

“This is my Christmas present,” he said.

Meanwhile, HHS athletic director Amy Lynn Boscolo had conducted a fundraising drive for Cunningham’s family earlier in this year, including a GoFundMe to assist with medical costs. As of Dec. 22, they had raised $42,918 of their $50,000 goal.

That also was not something Cunningham had sought.

“At first, me and my pride ... I was in the hospital so I didn’t even know it was happening,” he said. “I said I’m not asking anyone for money, I’ll take all the prayers in the world.”

People wanted to help, though, his mother and sister pointed out to him, and the medical bills were “significant” despite health insurance.

“It’s been an absolute blessing,” he said. “I’m very grateful to the Highland community, the coaching community, the Chicago community, to all the friends and family who were so generous.”

Returning to the sidelines

Cunningham says he’ll be back on the sideline coaching in January.

“I met with the doctors yesterday and they said I’m doing extremely well,” he said. “What they said is they’re not worried about me, just worried about the others around me, with the new variant. I’m going to follow their orders.”

But Cunningham is anxious to get back and is working to rebuild his strength by walking around the neighborhood. While in the hospital he had figured out a one-mile course through the corridors, and managed to complete it before he was even released.

“I won’t jog, but I can jog,” he said.

Cunningham background

Cunningham has been Highland High School’s varsity basketball coach for three years, though he is not a teacher in the district. He is a 1989 graduate of Westchester St. Joseph High School and attended Kansas State University.

Before coming to Highland, he coached four years at Gateway Legacy Christian Academy in Granite City and was an assistant coach at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.