Linda Stewart Ball / Dallas Morning News

Thanks to a kidney and pancreas transplant, Jayson Bull, a former diabetic,
is practically a new man.

No longer pale, the Princeton City Council member looks downright healthy.

Once blind, he said some vision is returning. And he's not as lethargic as he used to be.

At 30, Mr. Bull, who had to give up teaching and go on disability in 2004, is glad to be alive. The double transplant he received in February made the difference. He credits his unknown donor for this amazing gift.

Anti-rejection drugs replace the insulin shots that he gave himself four times a day. With his new pancreas, the diabetes he had for 20 years is gone. A new, functioning kidney delivered him from dialysis.

"There are a lot of myths surrounding organ donation," said Mr. Bull, who participated in the Southwest Transplant Alliance's volunteer training program this month.

"I had always been told I couldn't be a donor because I was diabetic... but, I've learned that's not true."

So Mr. Bull signed up. And in the interim, he's preparing to make a donation of a different kind.

While in the hospital for his transplant, he met a 5-year-old boy battling leukemia.
"He was more upset that he had no hair from the chemo than he was that he was dying," Mr. Bull recalled. So Mr. Bull, who once sported a buzz cut, decided to grow out his hair to donate it to Locks of Love, an organization that provides wigs to poor children suffering from medical hair loss.

Beyond noting his new curls, he said, no one has razzed him about his shoulder-length locks except his mom.

"She told me if it doesn't hurry up and get to that 10-inch length she's going to sneak in one night and cut it," he said, laughing at the thought.