Ledyard — In February 2014, Phil Eakin was shocked to be diagnosed with liver disease. Today, the 59-year-old is almost as surprised to be alive.

“I didn’t think I’d be around this long,” Eakin said. “I thought I’d be a goner. Liver disease, you can have it for a long time and never even know you have it.”

He said the comfort from and dedication of his family, especially his wife, Amy, during this trying period has helped Eakin press forward. “Because of the support I get, and the people that rally around me, that keeps me going, because ... if it wasn’t there, I don’t know where I’d be right now. I’d have to say I probably wouldn't be around.”

Benefit Concert

The Phil Eakin Needs A Liver Transplant Benefit Concert will be held at 5:30 p.m. July 28 at Ledyard High School. It is one of many actions the Eakin family has taken in order to find him a healthy match.

But that isn’t the only goal of the event.

“If my husband doesn’t survive, if we can’t find a new liver for him, my goal is to find an organ for someone else,” Amy Eakin said. “If it doesn’t work for him in his lifetime, maybe I’ve touched someone somewhere that they would step up and be a donor for someone else.”

Fifth Floor CT A cappella and Donate Life Connecticut, an organization that seeks to increase the number of tissue and organ donors in the state, are hosting the live music event. Raffles, a bake sale and an organ donor and recipient, who will deliver speeches, also will be featured.

It doesn't cost any money to attend the event — the goal is to gather donations for Donate Life Connecticut and to “spread the word about organ donation,” according to the Facebook event page, bit.ly/EakinConcert.

Phil’s life and fight

Eakin moved with his family from California to Ledyard in 2005. He was born in Pennsylvania but spent his childhood in California, where he met Amy. The two found each other through a mutual friend who was married to her sister. Eakin has a soft spot for New England and he and his wife have planted roots here. They have three children: two daughters and a son. The older son and older daughter are both married; the youngest is about to graduate from college. Amy and Phil also have three grandchildren.

Before his liver disease, Eakin was a millwright, which he describes as a “jack of all trades” job in the industrial mechanical field. By all accounts, he was an active man.

Upon feeling severe stomach pain in 2014 — the first indication of the disease — Eakin went to the hospital. Since then, he’s fought an internal battle to survive while his family has focused on the quest for a match.

“You can’t stop fighting,” he said. “If you lose the will in any physical situation, I think what happens is it’ll consume you. I think it’s true what they say about the mental aspect of physical disease — it can change things physically, as well.”

When asked how Eakin has changed after being diagnosed, Amy Eakin focuses on physical symptoms: He’s weaker than he used to be, slower, his mind isn’t as fresh, he walks with a cane, his legs hurt, he lost weight, he falls asleep mid-sentence. To help, she is trying to sell their home and buy a house without stairs.

Phil Eakin, though, talks about how having liver disease has affected his outlook on life.

“I guess I’m a lot more forgiving, understanding, compassionate for people with illness, and in all aspects,” he said. “I don’t take anything for granted, especially my health. ... Liver disease is like a demon. You could be good one week or one day or one month and, bam, it’s there and it’s really giving you a work-over.”

For four years, Eakin said, people have stepped up and tried to be donors for him. Some have even fit in with his blood and body type. But there’s always been a complication, such as with his daughter, whose liver is too small to be a match.

Still, Eakin refuses to be discouraged. Although he didn’t “want to make this corny,” he quoted Jim Kelly, the former Buffalo Bills quarterback who has been in the throes of cancer for years. When accepting the Jimmy V Award at the ESPYs recently, Kelly said something that resonated with Eakin: “Make a difference today for someone who is fighting for their tomorrow.”

Liver disease could take Eakin at any moment. He knows this. Dealing with his sickness has driven him and his wife to try to help others through sharing their experience and getting people to be donors.

“Sure, I’m looking for a liver and I don’t know how long I’ve got. But, then again, somebody else, because of me ... there’s someone right there that could be saved,” he said.

If Eakin is able to find a match, he plans to value his return to his old life and his relationships with his “beautiful family, daughters, grandkids, marriages, the success they’re having already. I’d like to see that, as far as I can, and be there for them.”

The family struggle

Amy Eakin has long been consumed by her mission to find her husband a replacement liver.

She joined Twitter, followed celebrities who had transplants; she’s written letters to newspapers, radio stations, TV stations, churches; she had her grandson, who turned 5 years old on July 18, paint rocks with the hashtag #EakinForALiver (their last name is pronounced “ache-in”), then she’s having her kids, who like to hike, place them throughout Connecticut trails; she puts fliers in restaurants and libraries and, when she picks up food, she hands them a flier; when a man delivered a refrigerator to her family, she gave him a flier. Her daughter has had to beg her to not think about her hunt for a healthy liver, if only for an hour at a time.

But Amy Eakin views it as her duty.

“I am not doing my job as a wife ... if I don’t do everything I can to save that man’s life,” she said. “I do this 24/7. It’s my passion, to get this man a liver.”

She maintains a full-time job, and says handling her husband's health insurance is a full-time job in itself.

She couldn’t help but cry intermittently as she spoke of her husband and his disease. They’ve been married 26 years, and she is certain that Eakin has more to give life and life has more to give him.

“He’s too young,” Amy said, “he’s a grandpa, he’s been at two of our children’s weddings, he’s got one more he’s gotta walk down the aisle for. She’s graduating nursing school in December, she has the right to have him there. He has that right to brainwash his grandchildren to be Steeler fans. He’s gotta teach them how to fish.”

The Eakins have had near-surefire matches, like Eakin's brother, only to be turned away because of health issues. Eakin, whose blood type is O-Positive, needs only a portion of a healthy liver. To see if you might be a match, call Yale’s Transplant Center at 1 (866) 925-3897. A nurse will ask you health questions, and if this goes well, you may have blood work done. Eakin's insurance pays for all medical tests.

If You Go

What: Phil Eakin Needs A Liver Transplant Benefit Concert

When: July 28, beginning at 5:30 p.m.

Where: Ledyard High School

Admission: Free but donations accepted