Karen Nimetz
2025-03-21 · 6 min read
Heidi Miller has been a Laguna Beach business owner for more than four decades. But her most remarkable work happens far from the shop floor — as a bone marrow donor, kidney donor, and founder of the LifeSavers Foundation.
Anyone who knows Heidi Miller would easily describe her as the epitome of selfless compassion. Of her giving spirit, Miller credits her parents, who taught their children to "always be of service to others."
Miller, a Laguna Beach resident and small business owner for more than four decades, initially moved to the area to open a frozen yogurt shop, Heidi's Frōgen Yozurt. After successfully growing the shop into 120 stores throughout nine states, Miller sold the company in 1990 and opened Tight Assets, a popular, upscale fashion store for women. She also owns World Newsstand and the recently opened value-priced fashion store Twenty Below, where all items are $19.95. All four businesses are located on PCH in Laguna Beach.
A Life-Changing Match
A former nationally ranked gymnast and body builder, Miller is very active and health conscious, participating in local boot camp classes three times a week. It is her healthy lifestyle and generous soul that unknowingly led her to become a true lifesaver.
In 1991, upon learning that a close friend battling lymphoma needed a bone marrow transplant, Miller helped recruit people to get tested. After getting tested herself, Miller found out that she was a match and immediately agreed to the procedure.
In 2017, she was given another chance of a lifetime when she found out that Bruce Cook, a man whom she did not know personally, was in need of a kidney transplant.
"I had read that Bruce is 6'5" and 240 pounds, and being that I'm only 5'3" and 118 pounds, I thought I probably won't be a match," she said. "However, I thought that if I got tested I could tell all my friends that I got tested, and I wasn't a match — but why don't you get tested, too. That was my thought process. I never really thought I'd be a perfect match for Bruce Cook."
God gave us two kidneys, but you only need one — so why don't you share your spare? That's my big motto: Share Your Spare!
When asked how life has been since the kidney donation, Miller happily reported that "Bruce has been off dialysis for five and a half years and has had three beautiful grandchildren born since then."
The LifeSavers Foundation
Miller's generosity truly knows no bounds. After providing lifesaving gifts of bone marrow and a kidney, Miller sought to help save even more lives. After mentoring many potential live kidney donors, Miller met a woman who desperately wanted to donate a kidney to her father but could not afford to take time off from work for the surgery and recovery. That's when Miller decided to start an organization to help support donors and recipients.
The organization — LifeSavers Foundation — provides financial assistance to living organ donors, paying for expenses related to lost wages, lodging, travel, medical appointments, and more. The organization also helps raise awareness and educates the public that donating a kidney in today's world is very safe.
Known as "The Kidney Whisperer," Miller has mentored about 150 people and helped to match more than 50 donors and recipients, with approximately 40 having now had transplants.
"Hospital staff tend to be so clinical, but to have someone who has recently donated a kidney, talking you through the steps — it just makes it easier and brings more comfort."
In Her Own Words
What do you love most about Laguna Beach?
"There are two things — the first would be the people. I have traveled the world and have never found a city where the people are as kind, giving, compassionate and caring as at Laguna Beach. Second, is the natural beauty. Everywhere you turn in Laguna Beach is natural beauty."
Something that every Laguna Beach resident should do or see?
"I think everybody who lives in Laguna has an obligation to give back and be supportive of all the restaurants and businesses. Before you drive to Newport or Dana Point for dinner, rethink that and try the local restaurants and businesses that support you. The downtown businesses are immensely important because they provide a vibrant downtown district with wonderful restaurants and shops that make people want to come to Laguna."
For more information about the Lifesavers Foundation, email heidimillerkidneydonor@gmail.com
