I was born on October 24th, 1980 to my mother who almost bled to death while bringing me into this world. This is something that has stayed with me to this very day. My parents were divorced and my mother tried very hard to make a suitable life for her son. I was brought up with less than most other kids had and at the time this was very hard for me to swallow. I was often on the outside of the other children and their conversations about all the good food they were eating, while I found myself elated by macaroni and cheese, if I was so lucky. In retrospect, I am happy to have had what we had as I know, now, many people have much less. As a kid being made fun of for clothes with holes in them, this notion did not quite kick in. Living with my mother and not having many friends, truly made time with my dad the highlight of my weeks. I will never forget the first time we watched Rocky. From that moment on that became my favorite movie and still is to this very day. Whenever kids would make fun of me or give me a hard time, I would turn to Rocky. And although I knew he was not real, I knew one day I would be like Rocky. Living with my mother in a one-bedroom apartment was rough at times. My mother had a lot of health problems and couldnt work. We did our best being on welfare and using food stamps. At one point she tried to work at McDonald’s and since there was no babysitter available, I found myself in a day care center in Pittsburgh, California. Being the youngest and only white kid, I also found myself quickly introduced to racism. This was an extremely, hard time for me but it thickened my skin and built up my stand against intolerance. The next step to thickening my skin was the day my father taught me to box. From that day on things changed for me. I no longer allowed myself to be bullied and now I had an outlet for the emotions and anger I had stored in my life. In order to focus more on boxing I moved to Anchorage, Alaska with my father. I got my GE D and focused on being as fit as Rocky. Mimicking Rocky 4 , I would run miles in the deep Alaskan snows. Always keeping my mother’s poor health in mind, I volunteered my free time at the Heart Association and the Humane Society. I became increasingly aware of how short and fragile life is and to the reality that we may not wake up tomorrow. I stick to the attitude of doing as much as we can with our time here. My goal is to live a life full of helping others, one that I will proud to look back on. All of this thinking pushed me to donate as much blood as I could and have since donated 22 gallons. Getting involved with donating blood lead me to discover how many people are on a waiting list for organ do nations. I also learned about living organ donation and decided it was something I wanted to do. I had a friend in California that needed a kidney transplant but I didn’t have the means to get there or pay for my medical treatments. This is when my entrepreneur skills came too. I saw a boxer with a tattoo on his back for golden palace.com. I offered to get a permanent tattoo of that same company by the time of my next fight. This have me enough money to trave l to California and pay my bills for the successful transplant. Shortly after the transplant, in fact maybe too short after, I ran a 5k and won. I was proud of this accomplishment but what made that moment so important was when someone approached me after the race and told me I was their hero for donating a kidney and winning the race so soon after. Since that experience, I have been working hard, boxing and spending time with my fiance and children. When I have found myself tight on money for Christmas presents or birthdays for any of my four kids, I have used my method of tattooing advertisements to make extra money. I have made it a personal goal of mine to be in the Guinness Book of World Records for most tattoo advertisements. It is my hope to use the attention I get for these advertisements to draw attention to the need for people to sign up to be donors. I hate to see people die on the waiting list for organ donations when there are so many people out there that can help. I hope to lead the path and donate a part of my liver to a friend with chriosis. This summer I will be traveling to undergo tests to be a living donor for him.

You can follor me on twitter at

twitter.com/BillyBillboard

and heres my link to my tattoo advertising page

www.checkoutmyink.com/profile/billythebillboard

feel free to email me as well with any questions or comments as well