Mississippi turkey hunter has donated more than a kidney to the ailing

Just a couple years ago, Cindy Pittman of Starkville, Miss., was losing hope.

After battling kidney disease for her entire life, doctors told her she was running out of time.

“They told me I only had another four or five years if I didn’t get a transplant,” she said.

That’s when she said fate stepped in. Pittman’s mother read a story abut a Mississippi firefighter who traveled to the Kansas City area to donate a kidney to a Kansas landowner who had been kind enough to let him hunt.

“Maybe something like that will happen to you,” she told her daughter.

It did. She met that firefighter, Rob Robinson, at a college baseball game and found they had a lot in common. Robinson was also from Starkville, and he was inspired to help others after donating his kidney.

He set up Forever Outdoors, dedicated to helping organ donors and recipients discover the healing powers of the outdoors. For Robinson, that mostly meant sharing his passion for turkey hunting.

That’s something Pittman didn’t know a lot about. She had hunted only a few times in her youth and had never chased wild turkeys.

Besides, she was fatigued by her disease and still recovering from the transplant she eventually received with Robinson’s help.

Robinson dedicated himself to helping Pittman, now 47, find a donor. And eventually, it happened.

But that was only the start. Robinson and Pittman began dating, and Pittman even became a turkey hunter.

She traveled to Yates Center, Kan., last spring with Robinson, and they hunted with one of the Forever Outdoors ambassadors.

The first two days gave Pittman a glimpse of what the sport was all about. She got to see turkeys in the distance, though they wouldn’t respond to calls, and she relaxed in the beauty of the spring woods.

But that was enough, in her mind. She told Robinson she was done, that she didn’t want to go a third day.

Robinson, though, talked her into it. And it’s a good thing, Pittman said.

“We were about to give up when we saw these turkeys down in a little depression,” she said. “We all got down and Rob started calling.

“Pretty soon, this big gobbler started coming toward us, all fanned out and gobbling like crazy. Rob whispered to me, ‘Cindy, this is your time,’ and I was able to shoot it.

“My adrenaline went sky-high. It was the thrill of my life.”

Robinson lives for such moments. An avid turkey hunter, he has traveled near and far to pursue big gobblers. Last year, he even accomplished a turkey hunter’s grand slam, shooting each of the nation’s major turkey strains in a single year. But these days, he is more preoccupied with seeing that others get to enjoy the thrill of hunting the big woodland birds.

Four years after he sat in his camouflage pajamas in his bed at the University of Kansas Hospital, moments after he donated a kidney to Gil Alexander, the Kansas man who let Robinson hunt on his property, life is good for Robinson.

He is doing well with one kidney, and he has become a close friend of Alexander, who is still active despite dealing with other health problems. Alexander has become a turkey hunter and even hosted a youth hunt for youngsters is his western-Kansas community of Nicodemus.

Robinson has expanded his Forever Outdoors program to include cancer patients and survivors,veterans and children. He relies on fundraisers and donations through his Forever Outdoors Facebook page and the help of volunteers.

“This isn’t just about me,” he said. “I get a lot of help from others who just want to help others out.

“We’ve signed up a lot of people to be organ donors through our Facebook page. And a lot of people have volunteered to help with our hunts after hearing what we’re all about.”

His ties to Kansas remain. He returned to Alexander’s farm two years ago and helped take two kidney recipients and a cancer survivor on a muzzleloader deer hunt. One of the hunters took a whitetail buck, another shot a mule deer.

This spring, Robinson’s schedule is full as he travels across the country, helping others fulfill their turkey-hunting dreams.

“God led me to this,” said Robinson, 47. “I was fully prepared to die when I was on that operating table, donating that kidney to Gil.

“Now, I am excited about helping others. I don’t get anything but enjoyment out of watching others hunt turkeys or deer or catch fish. I don’t make any money at this.

“But that’s OK. I’m happy.”

This story was originally published April 9, 2016 at 5:27 PM with the headline "Mississippi turkey hunter has donated more than a kidney to the ailing."