Saving a soccer mom: Former La Cueva star put soccer future on the line to donate organ to her mother

What if you chased the same dream since you were barely more than a toddler and then found out you could save the life of someone you love if you gave it up?

For former La Cueva High soccer star Cameron Dixon, it was a no-brainer.

She kicked the dream to the curb.

Dixon, a scholarship player on Portland (Oregon) State University's soccer team, sacrificed her senior season to provide a large portion of her liver to her mother during transplant surgery in July.

"My whole life I knew I wanted to play Division 1 soccer," Dixon, 21, said during a phone interview from Kyle, Texas, where her mother, Jamie Ellman, now lives. "I remember seeing the women's national team and how inspirational they were on and off the field. I started playing soccer when I was 4."

Her mother, who suffers from an inherited genetic disease called PKD/PLD, or polycystic kidney and liver disease, went into liver failure in the spring and desperately needed a donor. But when Dixon stepped up, her mom resisted. Her daughter's collegiate soccer career had already been abbreviated by COVID and an injury, and Ellman did not want her to miss her final year.

"I was her coach in AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization)," Ellman, 53, said. "She worked so hard her whole life — club soccer, varsity soccer and varsity basketball at La Cueva. She broke her foot and missed her junior year in college. For me, to think of her giving up her senior year, to think about her ending her soccer career and never playing again kind of broke my heart.

"To her it was a no-brainer, but to me it was the last resort."

Dixon admits the idea of the transplant surgery scared her out of her mind, but she didn't blink and she did not back down.

"I definitely would not have done it if this is something I didn't want to do," she said. "My mom's life was way more important than soccer. No regrets. Definitely not."

Up in the air

Dixon played AYSO soccer and club soccer in Albuquerque and was a standout on the La Cueva High team that finished second in the state in 2018, her junior year, and was District 5A champion the next year. She was 5A District Player of the Year, an all-district first-team defender and all-state second-team defender in 2019.

And then bingo. Dream realized. In 2020, she was a member of Portland State's Division 1 soccer team.

But in her COVID-shortened freshman year, she played for only 21 minutes for the Vikings in one match. Her sophomore season was better, with 131 minutes in seven matches.

And then, in the fall of 2021, while throwing around a football with friends, she dove to make a catch, landed awkwardly and broke her foot.

"I ended up needing two surgeries," she said. "They put in two screws and a plate. And then seven months later, there was another surgery to take them out."

That kept her on the sidelines most of 2022, her junior year. She played in just two games for a total of 33 minutes.

The good news is that Dixon was allowed to redshirt because of the surgery and recovery and will be permitted to play a fifth year. She hopes to be back on the field for Portland State's spring schedule in April.

But when she was preparing for the transplant surgery, which would remove 70% of her liver and all of her gallbladder, she did not know if she would ever be able to compete again.

"It was definitely always up in the air as to whether I could play soccer again," Dixon said. "Doctors said, 'We think you can. We just don't know what the (recovery) timeline will be.'"

Ellman said no one knew if her daughter would be cleared to play after such extreme surgery.

"You slam into other girls," Ellman said. "But to be honest, I was not worried about her recovering from the surgery. I knew if Cam put her mind to it, she would come back better than ever. She was back way before anyone thought possible. She was able to get back at the end of the (2023) season and play in practice. She went out and ran 13 miles the other day."

A good match

Ellman's disease has been a deadly plague in her family. Her great-grandmother, grandmother and mother all died from PKD. Her mother, aunt, uncle, brother and several cousins had kidney transplants because of the disease.

"I'm the only family member who had the liver disease (PLD)," Ellman said. But she also suffers from the kidney ailment.

"My kidney function has been below 30% for years. It is 15% now. I could have had a double transplant, but I was worried about how long it would take to get a kidney donor, and I already had a liver donor in Cam."

Neither Dixon nor her brother Blair have the genetic disease, which is one of the positive aspects of this story.

Last spring, Dixon underwent extensive testing and found out she was a good match to be a liver donor for her mother. The transplant surgery was on July 27 at University Health Transplant Institute in San Antonio, Texas. Dixon was in surgery for 9½ hours and Ellman for about 12 hours.

Following the surgery, Dixon was in the hospital for six days, her body enmeshed in a network of IVs, other lines and drains. Then she was sent home to recover. After a post-operation appointment to remove a final drain, she was released from her doctors' care and returned to Portland State, where her recovery was supervised by team doctors and trainers.

"My trainers cleared me in 2½ to three months," she said. "I probably could have played in 2023, but my coaches were uncomfortable with that. That was probably a good call. Fatigue was an issue."

Instead, she assumed a sidelines leadership post.

"I believe everything happens for a reason," Dixon said. "With my injuries, I kind of found a role as a leader off the field, someone my teammates could go to. I think that improved my communications skills."

She said teammates might be having problems on the field, but talking to someone who could not play because of injuries helped them concentrate on the positives.

No surprise

Ellman was with Albuquerque Public Schools for about 10 years, as a teacher at Eisenhower Middle School and teaching history at La Cueva during her daughter's senior year there.

Her experience after the transplant surgery was not as good as her daughter's.

"Basically, I had a GI (gastrointestinal) bleed," she said. "I had to go back in two times to put in some clips. It was pretty scary. Because of the bleed, my hemoglobin was pretty low."

Now, she is on a waiting list for a kidney transplant.

She draws the line at her daughter donating a kidney.

"That's a big 'no,'" Ellman said. "She's done her part. She is obviously the most thoughtful person I know, extremely kind and humble. She is truly an amazing person."

La Cueva girls soccer coach Amber Ashcraft has contributed to 11 La Cueva state soccer championships, two as a player at the school and nine as coach. She has 25 district titles to her credit, two as a player and the rest as coach.

She's known Dixon since Cameron attended a La Cueva soccer camp as an eighth grader and was her varsity coach at La Cueva.

"Cam played center-back for me and is one of the strongest heading center-backs I ever had," Ashcraft said. "She reads the ball in the air very well, so she is a great defensive back and is a great passer."

As a person, Ashcraft said, Dixon is a lot of fun to around, very personable and extremely genuine. She said she would have expected her to be the first in line to give her liver to her mother.

"She would have given it to a stranger. That's the kind of person she is," Ashcraft said. "And her mom, along with her brother, is the most important person to her in the world."

Fulfilling a dream

Dixon wrote about her transplant experiences in an Op-Ed posted by the NCAA titled, "I Missed My Senior Season to Save My Mom's Life."

In that piece, she wrote that she wanted to share her story to show that "we, especially as athletes, can change the world."

She wrote that her experience had revealed to her not only her own strength and courage but that of her mother and also the kindness and dedication of the transplant team.

The liver actually regenerates itself. So a donor such as Dixon can give up a portion of the organ and it doubles in size within weeks and is back to its original size within months. But Dixon's gallbladder is gone for good.

"I feel I am pretty much 100%," she said. "There will be some lingering things, especially with the scar." The wound is fully healed, and although Dixon feels the scar, she said it does not inhibit her.

She said her body will not be able to tolerate red meats, fried and highly-processed foods as it did before the transplant surgery. But that's likely no problem for an applied health and fitness major such as Dixon. Exercise, nutrition and health is a way of life for her.

"My goal is to be a personal trainer," she said.

But before that, she's got to fulfill her dream. She will play soccer for Portland State this spring and fall and graduate in the fall.

"I'm really excited for her," Ellman said. "I'm hoping I can get out to Portland and see her play. She's a real trouper and the perfect person to do what she did for me. I tell her all the time that I want to be like her when I grow up."

Cameron Dixon unselfishly saves the life of a soccer mom -- her own

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