Ever since she was a child, Megan Davern looked out for her three younger siblings.

Little did Megan know, someday she would have the chance to save one of their lives.

The daughter of John and Denise Davern, of Munhall, Megan is the eldest of their four children.

From a young age, Megan now 31, took on a special role with her brothers Adam, 28, Brad, 26, and sister, Lindsay, 22.

"We were really close," Megan said. "I guess just from when we were really little, my brother Adam used to beat up on him (Brad) all the time, so I was just the protector."

Brad, an avid athlete, excelled in several sports at Steel Valley High School and was good enough at basketball to receive a scholarship from Bethany College.

He also ran cross country and played basketball, soccer and volleyball.

However, shortly after high school, the athletic prowess that defined Brad's life for so long was put on hold. At age 22, he developed a bad cough and fatigue, which flared up while playing basketball.

"I could barely run up the court," Brad said. "I ended up coughing up blood and getting really tired."

On July 4, 2001, Brad was taken to the emergency room. Doctors found his kidneys weren't functioning.

He immediately began dialysis. Brad would later be diagnosed with Wegener's Granulomatosis.

Wegener's is an uncommon disease, which affects about one in 20,000 people, according to the Vasculitis Foundation Web site.

"It is systemic, meaning it affects the body as a whole," according to the Web site. "It affects the upper (sinuses and nose), and lower (lungs), respiratory system and frequently involves the kidneys, lungs, eyes, ears, throat, skin and other body organs."

After a series of tests, doctors decided Brad needed a new kidney and he was added to the transplant list.

The Daverns began to inquire about the viability of living donors in Brad's case.

Denise and Adam did not match Brad's blood type, and John had several health problems, which left him unable to donate. Lindsay, at age 16, was too young for the operation.

That left Megan.

"I didn't know what my blood type was," she said. "I'm deathly afraid of needles."

Megan went through several tests and found that her blood type, B positive, matched Brad's.

"There was no question about it," Davern said. "I was like, 'OK, let's go through with it.'"

While the decision was easy for Megan and her family, it wasn't so simple for Brad.

"He was afraid if it didn't work I would go through all of this, and I might be mad or he would be mad at himself for making me go through it," Megan said.

"I didn't want anything to happen to her," Brad added. "Things could go wrong, it made me nervous."

In the end, Megan and Brad decided to go through with the surgery.

"You have to go in knowing that sometimes it doesn't work," Megan said.

On Oct. 2, 2002, Brad and Megan had the six-hour operation. Megan underwent an "open" procedure in which doctors made a six-inch incision on her left side and removed her left kidney. In the next room, Brad was waiting. When doctors finished removing Megan's kidney, they went immediately to Brad and replaced his kidney with hers.

Then began the recovery process.

In the case of a living donor transplant, the recipient of the organ often recovers faster then the donor, Megan said.

"My brother was up and walking the next day," Megan said.

"It's a lot harder on the donor for the surgery. Your recovery is a little bit easier for the recipient. My brother was up and moving and was eating pizza."

Megan recovered for four weeks then returned to work as a substitute teacher in the Steel Valley School District.

Then, six months after the surgery, Brad's body rejected his new kidney.

"They were hoping to save it," Megan said. "They put him on a bunch of different anti-rejection medicines and they weren't able to. He got really sick and they think that the kidney was what was making him sicker, so they had to take it out."

While the Daverns were disappointed with the outcome, Brad went back on dialysis and the organ donation list.

On April, 27 2006, Brad was given a second chance and again underwent a kidney transplant operation. This time the kidney came from a deceased donor. However, Brad's body again rejected the organ --this time only nine days after the operation.

"They had said that it might be because of the anti-rejection drugs," Brad said. "They are waiting for a new one to come out before they even put me on the (organ donor) list again."

After both transplant operations, Brad was put back on dialysis three times a week.

Despite the setbacks, Brad has gotten back into athletics.

He joined Team Ireland, a group of other kidney transplant recipients who competed in an Ironman competition in Minnesota, and Team Pittsburgh, a group of transplant recipients who compete in Olympic-style games as part of the U.S. Transplant Games.

The 2008 U.S. Transplant Games will be held in Pittsburgh.

Brad will compete in the basketball, bowling, volleyball, swimming and cycling.

The Davern family now helps raise money and awareness through Team Pittsburgh and the Center for Organ Recovery and Education (CORE).

"It meant a lot to me that my sister would donate her organ to me," Brad said.

It also meant a great deal to Megan.

"If I could do it again, I would do it again," she said.