John Malkow was a 20-year-old Army medic in 1968 when a lab explosion plunged him into a world of darkness. After 10 days in intensive care and several months in hospitals and rehabilitation, he was told there was no hope of ever seeing again, and no help for the chemical stains that would gradually blacken his face. A fifth-generation Oregonian, John returned to his roots in the Applegate Valley of Southern Oregon, where he and his wife, Anita, settled on a farm near Murphy. He never saw his two daughters - Heidi was born three weeks after the accident and Holly two years later - but he relied on the little girls to lead him around their farm. Occasionally bruised and bloodied, John was determined to live a normal life. He mowed the lawn, hammered nails for their home and farm buildings, and cut a winter's supply of firewood every year. "I did everything but drive a car and fly a plane," he says, but he always clung to the hope that someday he would see his wife and daughters.

He searched for over 30 years until he finally heard the words, "I think I can help you."

John has recently been selected to represent the Coalition on Donation as one of six spokespersons for the Coalition's national campaign to promote organ and tissue donation. Look for him in the next several months on several public service announcements.

Never Give Up follows John Malkow's long and sometimes difficult journey, from learning to "see" at blind school, to participating in his daughters' school activities, enduring cruel remarks about his appearance despite the painful facial treatments, always determined to live a full life within his family and community. No matter how often he was told "There's nothing more we can do for you," John Malkow never gave up.

Over the years, those words, Never Give Up, became his theme.

Finally, after a 1999 corneal transplant surgery that his doctors called miraculous, the world of sight opened to him. Exploring this new world brought new challenges for John. He describes the thrill of seeing his two beautiful daughters for the first time, his first Christmas and his first hunting trip after the surgery. John also grieved for the young man's family who donated the cornea he received, and he was often overwhelmed by the changed world, by friends he did not recognize, even by the old man who looked back at him from the mirror.

John's journey to sight and healing has been called "an amazing and touching story," and a story "that made me rethink a lot of things" by audiences around Oregon.

John and his wife, Anita, make their home in Murphy, Oregon, where they are both members of Lions International. John is donating a portion of the sale of each book to the Oregon Lions Sight and Hearing Foundation through which he received a donated cornea. John is a Grants Pass Lions Club Member.

Do not miss this opportunity to hear John's story and learn about his dedication and his will never to give up!