Broward Tennis Blog: Community Rallies Behind Pro’s Kidney Transplant Need

FIANCEES: That’s Michael and Richelle Tankersley, his fiancee of 27 years. (The last word was not a typo.)

Tennis pro Michael Sean Bennett gives lessons on the courts of Dillon Tennis Center in the Oakland Park section of Ft. Lauderdale to Sean Bennett. (No relation, and no, Sean’s middle name isn’t Michael.) Sean is now giving Michael lessons off the courts on receiving — in particular, love.

Love for the pro is now overflowing from as far away as North Carolina and Texas to New York and California. Mike’s mom, an ardent student of the Abraham-Hicks spiritual teachings, has encouraged her son to learn how to receive for years. He’s now learning the lesson. Her Facebook page is informing people of her son’s condition and progress.

Michael, who’s taught throughout Broward County for 28 years, has suffered from an autoimmune disease that attacks the filters of his kidneys for the past 12 years, and now, after five catheter surgeries, needs a kidney transplant. After Sean’s blood type ruled him out as a donor, a light bulb went off in his mind: He would post on his Facebook page that Michael needed the organ.

THE ANGEL: Salina Hanna, kidney donor and miracle worker.

After getting an OK from the pro, he posted, and posted, and posted. A Facebook friend, Salina Hanna, a single mom and an ultrasonographer at an OB-GYN office outside Charlotte, who used to be a student of Sean’s in color guard at Coconut Creek High School, agreed to donate one of her kidneys.

“When I saw Sean’s post something pulled at me,” she said. “I can’t explain it.” As someone who’s long been passionate about medicine and its advances, she examined the donation process and decided that, “If it’s meant to be, it will be.”

After a battery of medical exams and procedures, a transplant could take place some time this winter. In summing up her decision to give a strange man her kidney, she said: “People need to step up now for each other. We all need that.”

FUND, FUND, FUND: It was Local League Coordinator Maria Miro who came up with the idea of launching a fundraising campaign for Michael.

It’s a Wonderful Tennis Life
The private and proud recipient gives himself dialysis treatments every night. He’d planned to take out a line of credit on his house to pay for his healthcare costs and to defray the costs for whoever would donate an organ for him. He was blown away, however, when Broward County USTA Florida Local League Coordinator Maria Miro, a student of Michael’s for 20 years, came up with the idea of letting the world know about his urgent health and financial needs. She set up a page on gofundme.

In about a month, more than $26,100 was raised from 141 donors in gifts that ranged from $10 to $1,500. As Maria wrote on the site, “Michael has been such a giving, caring person to so many, it’s time we all expressed how much he’s appreciated through our donations.”

Her tennis teacher has given hundreds of free clinics and discounted countless lessons for those less fortunate. The enormity of response is reminiscent of the final scene of It’s a Wonderful Life, in which Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey character sees how deeply he’s touched the lives of so many, who then bail him out in his hour of financial need.

Dec. 12 Fundraiser
The Lauderdale Tennis Club stepped up to donate its courts for a four-hour clinic and round robin with “eight of the best teaching pros in Ft. Lauderdale,” according to club manager Dan DeBruyne. The Dec. 12 fundraiser can accommodate 60 players at $30 per person for an hour-and-a-half clinic and a 2-1/2 hour round robin with the pros.

Following the tennis, a silent auction and raffle, set up by several volunteers, will take place. According to one of those volunteers, Colette Kienle, who’s played in USTA Leagues for 20 years, auction donors include USTA Florida, which donated tickets to the Miami Open and the Delray Beach Open.

THE INITIATOR: Sean Bennett, whose Facebook posts started a miraculous outpouring of love.

Richelle Tankersley, Mike’s fiancée, said that the Florida Tennis Foundation also donated tickets for the Miami Open. Tennis equipment manufacturers Prince, Babolat, and Head have given rackets, and Promos4sale donated design and print services. Raffle items include a gift basket from the captains of USTA and other league teams that play out of Dillon, among other items from other people.

On Nov. 14, a portion of sales at the Match Point Tennis store in Oakland Park helped defray Mike’s costs. Wilson donated a Roger Federer Wilson RF97 racket autographed by the tennis great for an auction that was held that day at the shop. It raised $2,500 alone.

“Salina and Facebook may very well save the life of a wonderful man,” said Sean Bennett. While he started the ball rolling, “Salina is the angel in this whole miracle story.”