PARKVILLE, Md — "Unkle Earl" got his nickname from a nurse.
"She always said I reminded her of her uncle," he recalled.
It was fitting, as the staff at University of Maryland Medical Center became like his family. In 2010, Earl Holt's life changed overnight.
“I didn’t feel it the day before, but that morning when I got up I just felt kind of strange. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t catch my breath," he told WMAR-2 News' Elizabeth Worthington.
He was diagnosed with a rare lung disease called BOOP, which stands for bronchiolitis obliterans with organizing pneumonia.
The normally active, healthy man suddenly needed an oxygen tank to survive. And eventually, he was told he needed a double-lung transplant.
By 2015, "I was told by the doctor, without a lung transplant, I wouldn't make two months."
“He was very healthy, very active person. Then to get to the point that you basically can’t do much of anything that you used to do, you're basically helpless," his wife, Sherri, said.
While waiting for a miracle, he learned something new - of the more than 100-thousand people currently on the national transplant waiting list, 60% represent racial or ethnic minorities. Specifically among African-Americans, the rates of high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease are disproportionately high. Those conditions not only contribute to organ failure, but can also prevent someone from becoming an organ donor.
"I wasn't even thinking about it until it happened to me," Holt said.
All the unknowns led to fear. Earl resisted getting evaluated for a transplant.
"I was just scared, and it almost cost me my life," he recalled.
Once he was finally convinced, Earl and his wife Sherri learned something else - the donor not only needs to be the same blood type, but about the same height and weight as Earl too. Standing at 6'5, that limited his options. But in may 2015, they found a match.
"It's wonderful now to breathe air that I couldn't breathe for maybe 4 or 5 years," Early said, smiling.
"We're able to travel. We're able to fly without oxygen," Sherri said. "We’ve been back and forth to Disney World, bring out the kid in us. So we've really been having a great time, living our best lives."
And they want others to have the same second chance at life. So they're sharing their story, and everything they learned along the way.
Earl wrote a book, called "Unkle Earl: A Double-Lung Transplant Recipient's Story of Survival." Sherri started a nonprofit, called Begin Anew.
“We provide education to eliminate the disparities," she explained. You can find out more about the organization here.
You can buy his book here. The "K" represents the kindness he was shown by the nurses and doctors at UMMC.