Danielle Fiorito
Danielle Fiorito is a kidney transplant recipient who was sponsored to compete at the 2026 Transplant Football World Cup in Frankfurt, Germany, where she earned two major honors: Women’s MVP and the Golden Boot, awarded for her scoring performance.
Before her transplant, she was a collegiate soccer player and competitive CrossFit athlete. While on dialysis, she continued to train for two hours each day and began competing in Donor Games events. In 2025, she tied for second place in the 2025 Donor Games Championship.
Transplant Story: Danielle’s kidney transplant journey started in June 2018, when she was in college. She started getting really bad fevers and body aches. She was checked for a UTI, mono, and various other things, but none of the doctors could figure out what was wrong. A couple weeks later, she ended up in the ER and was told that her kidney function and hemoglobin were so low that she might need a blood transfusion or a kidney transplant immediately. She started dialysis in April 2025 and received a kidney transplant on January 12, 2026, with her mother as her donor. Read Danielle’s full transplant story.