SUMMERDALE — Ida Peebles is on a mission. It is a mission of hope. Indeed it is a mission of love.

She is on a mission to save the life of David Laws. Who is David Laws?

The Tennessee native and resident is a husband, father and grandfather, but most important to Summerdale resident Peebles is the fact that Laws is her son-in-law, married to her youngest child, her daughter Elizabeth.

Peebles, along with other family and friends, is on a mission because Laws is in need of a liver transplant.

Roy “David” Laws grew up in Jackson, Tenn. He and Elizabeth currently live in Christiana, Tenn., a small town outside of Nashville.

According to the website savedavidlaws.com, in August of 2007, Laws began to feel that something was wrong.

“It was if someone sucked the life out of me but I was still walking around and trying to function,” he said.

Time passed, but he didn’t get any better. He was feeling sluggish and run down.

After a few trips to the doctor, they decided it must be his gall bladder. Of course this would have been a common and simple surgery so that’s where it was all headed. The doctors were making preparation and said there was “one more test” before we schedule surgery.

This test revealed there was something wrong with the liver. They explained that they could not remove the gall bladder due to the fact his liver was bad. The otherwise common surgery could have resulted in severe bleeding as a result of the bad liver.

Tests later revealed that Laws had Cirrhosis of the liver, an ailment most commonly caused by alcohol, but in Laws’ case, it was caused from a fatty liver. Cirrhosis is an irreversible change in the normal liver tissue that results in the degeneration of functioning liver cells and their replacement with fibrous connective tissue.

Initially, treatment took Laws to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, but upon the suggestion of a friend, they later changed to Methodist University in Memphis.

Unlike Vanderbilt, Methodist agreed to perform a liver transplant without having to have the money up front. And that’s really where our story begins.

In order to have the surgery, Laws must have 200 units of blood (according to the website 47 people so far have pledged to donate). And while insurance will cover more than half the cost of the surgery, it will still cost Laws and his family approximately $150,000.

A local high school in Tennessee has donated the use of the school gym for a blood drive on Sept. 27, but Peebles is still trying to get something organized here in Baldwin County.

“I was told by a lady from the Red Cross that normally blood drives held here would only go to Alabama, Mississippi and Florida,” she said. “But she said they would try to work something out.”

Laws’ connection to Baldwin County runs deep.

Both of Peebles’ parents, Calvin and Elizabeth Childress, were lifelong residents of Baldwin County.

Peebles and her first husband, Jimmy Walker, lived and raised their four children in Baldwin County until 1978 when they moved to Arkansas.

Their oldest son, Jimmy, stayed in Baldwin County and now lives in Foley. Sons Calvin and Bruce both live in Arkansas, while daughter Elizabeth, who went to Summerdale School through the ninth grade, now lives in Tennessee.

Peebles would later return to Baldwin County, marrying longtime friend and widower E.L. “Pee Wee” Peebles.

She also wants to encourage people to become organ donors.

“According to statistics, as many as 50 people are helped by one organ donor,” she said. In Alabama, becoming an organ donor is as easy as requesting that the designation be put on one’s driver license.

The American Red Cross has a motto, “Give Blood, Give Life,” and through her mission of hope and love, Peebles plans to do just that for David Laws.