Meeting a Challenge Unlike Any Other

Sara Valentine thrives on a challenge.

It enabled her, at 5-foot-3, to be a point guard on Stanislaus State's women's basketball team from 1982 to1984.

It motivated her to run nine marathons, all but one with Team in Training for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

She lives up to her name, Valentine, and leads with her heart, which prompted her to become a living kidney donor on behalf of someone she didn't even know.

"Jaxon needed a kidney," Valentine said of 14-year-old Jaxon Shaneyfelt of Turlock. "There's a neighbor a street over that had a sign up about it."

Seeing that sign started a journey that ended last spring on May 7, when Valentine underwent a four-hour procedure at Stanford Medical Center to donate her healthy left kidney.

Valentine was never seriously considered as Shaneyfelt's donor. At 62, she said, her kidney was probably a bit old for the teenager.

Instead, another Sarah - Sarah Best of Sacramento - saw Jaxon's story on Instagram and was a match. Their successful transplant was conducted last December.

Valentine's kidney went to someone in Tampa, Florida.

She began the donor process in September 2023, undergoing blood, urine and other medical tests. That was only part of the pre-surgical process.

"The first person I talked to was an advocate for me," Valentine said. "You have to talk to a psychiatrist. I saw and talked to a lot of people. The first thing they all tell you is, 'You can die from this.'"

Friends and family voiced concerns, but Valentine was determined.

"You're concerned, which is why they do the amount of testing they do," Valentine said. "They tell you about the aftereffects. You need to be aware of becoming diabetic. That's a big one."

"We all do things in different ways. It was an opportunity that presented itself. It felt like the right thing to do."

-Sara Valentine, Alumna

Within two days of donating her kidney, she was walking 4,000 to 7,000 steps along the cliffs of Half Moon Bay, where she treated herself to a brief stay. Nine weeks later, she felt no effects. She watches her sugar intake to guard against type 2 diabetes.

Valentine's only concern about donating her healthy organs was that she might have had a medical condition that would prevent it.

It turns out her body was fine. She still has the body of an athlete.

She played different sports at Thousand Oaks High School and spent two years playing basketball at Moorpark College. When her career there ended, she drove north with her mom looking for a college where she could continue playing her favorite sport.

The place that felt most comfortable was Stanislaus State. It didn't have the aesthetic quality it does today, but it was small, which was to her liking. Valentine briefly met Coach LeAnn Heinrich during her visit, and after the first-year coach contacted Valentine's Moorpark coach, Heinrich invited Valentine to become a Warrior.

Stan State was a non-scholarship, Division III program in 1982, and recruiting was limited.

At Stan State, Valentine also played softball - coached by her sister Mary - and competed in the heptathlon "because I'd never done it," she said.

The University, where she graduated in 1984 with a liberal studies degree with an emphasis in English and a minor in gerontology, was the right fit, she said.

"My time at Stan State was very impactful," Valentine said. "It trained me for my career. It allowed me to compete at the collegiate level in three sports, and I made lifelong friends. Stan State helped me become who I am, and I'm thankful."

"My time at Stan State was very impactful. It trained me for my career. It allowed me to compete at the collegiate level in three sports, and I made lifelong friends. Stan State helped me become who I am, and I'm thankful."

-Sara Valentine, Alumna

Valentine became an elementary school teacher, mostly working with special needs children during a 32-year career in Turlock.

Maybe those students provided a greater challenge, or it was in her heart to teach those who needed more help.

As a teacher, she volunteered with colleagues for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life fund-raising events, but joining Team in Training was all about meeting a new challenge.

"That was a bucket list item. I wanted to run a marathon," said Valentine, who ironically admits she never loved to run except if it was to catch or throw a ball. "I saw a blurb in The Modesto Bee that they were having a meeting, so I went.

"I think it was because part of Team in Training is you get a coach."

The organization had devised a training regimen for runners, and within six months of that first meeting, Valentine ran her first marathon, the 2004 San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Marathon.

Eight more would follow over a five-year stretch, including Alaska's Midnight Sun Marathon in Anchorage and the Maui Marathon.

Though running can feel like a lonely, individual endeavor, Valentine said she loved being surrounded in her marathons by a sea of purple shirts worn by Team in Training members from across the country.

Valentine reached out to friends to sponsor her entry in marathons and also led her team's broader fundraising for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society with innovative ideas. She held dinners, a casino night and set up tennis shoes on metal stakes and planted them in yards. She left a note: "For $20 I'll take them down. For $25 I'll put them in the yard of your choice."

Those shoes gained traction all over town as friends had them moved from house to house.

Five years of running marathons ended, and few physical challenges remained.

Then she saw a teen in need, and Valentine acted.

"We all do things in different ways," Valentine said. "It was an opportunity that presented itself. It felt like the right thing to do."

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