After Son Dies in Crash, Parents Form Bond with the Man Who Got His Heart and Liver: ‘Paying It Forward’ (Exclusive)

“I still carry my own legacy and my own purpose, (but) I think I still carry his too,” Skylar Collins tells PEOPLE

• Nate Rhoades, 21, died following a car accident in January 2022 in California after managing to get sober from addiction

• His parents opened a nonprofit wellness and recovery center named after their son, while Rhoades’ organs have helped up to 100 people — including Skylar Collins, who has become close to the 21-year-old’s parents

• “Our son and we are paying it forward,” Nate’s father tells PEOPLE

In January 2022, Nate Rhoades was seriously injured in a semi-truck accident. The personal trainer was declared brain dead and put on life support to keep his organs alive. He died five days after his 21st birthday.

Today, his legacy lives on through his organ donations that have helped up to 100 people — including a Washington state man with whom Nate’s family has grown close — and through a nonprofit center that helps at-risk teens and young adults struggling with substance use and mental health challenges.

“We always say, ‘Nate is on the other side, I mean, he opens doors for us,’” Nate’s mother Heidi Allison tells PEOPLE of her son, who had an addiction as a teenager before getting sober. “Because so many wonderful things have happened.”

Allison says she and her husband Larry Rhoades’ only child was a “little fighter” who was born 12 weeks premature and weighed just over 2 pounds. Nate, who was hospitalized for about six weeks after birth, had anxiety, gastrointestinal problems, ADHD and was extremely outgoing, she recalled.

Related: Parents of girl who died after swing accident say her heart is beating somewhere thanks to organ donation

“He just loved people,” says the therapist. “Both Larry and I have been in recovery from alcohol for years. So we sat down with (him) when he was eight and nine and said, ‘Look. You’ll have to be so careful because both your parents have had problems with alcohol.’ ”

But eventually he and his friends started experimenting with different drugs. One morning, after the teen obtained some pills, the parents said he was found “barely conscious.” He was then sent to a residential treatment center, relapsed and was sent back.

Allison, 65, says that during that second “something clicked” and a peer recovery coach helped Nate stay sober. He studied addiction studies at Oxnard College in California and even became a certified fitness trainer at a local Gold’s Gym, where he worked until his death.

“His real passion was sports, fitness and helping people,” says Larry, 80.

After his crash, Allison says several visitors arrived at the hospital to say goodbye to Nate and tell stories about him. His family and girlfriend watched in awe.

“At one point one of us said, we can’t remember who, but one of us said, ‘Oh my God, this looks like Nate’s house in the hospital,’” the therapist recalls. “We came up with the idea: ‘Maybe we can do something with this to help other people, other children, like he did.’ “

This inspired them to open Nate’s Place, a wellness and recovery center in 2023. The center offers individual recovery coaching, group therapies and recreational activities such as boxing, guitar lessons and table tennis. Heidi says more than 250 people have benefited so far.

But the parents acknowledge that their son also had a more solemn, tangible legacy: helping strangers with his organ donations.

“What you produce helps someone else live,” says Larry. “Our son and we are paying it forward.”

The couple says they wrote a letter to all of Nate’s donor recipients, saying they were “so happy” their son could help them. They received some responses. One from Skylar Collins, who received Nate’s heart and liver, really stood out to them.

“Oh my God,” Allison remembers the letter saying. ‘I was so happy to receive your letter. You can’t believe what I’ve been through.’ Then he said he would like to meet them.

Related: Family celebrates Thanksgiving after father receives double organ transplant from son: ‘Great gift’ (Exclusive)

Collins, 31, tells PEOPLE what he was born with hypoplastic right heart syndromemeaning he was missing a right ventricle. By the time he got the transplant, he had undergone about ten heart surgeries.

When Collins was told he needed a transplant in 2017, he shares that he was a bit skeptical. Eventually he realized he had to move on because he “wanted to live and not die.”

“I had goals and achievements that I wanted (to) do,” he adds. “I wasn’t done here yet.” The man says it was a years-long process that sent him from hospital to hospital – briefly halted due to the pandemic – before he got a “phone call” on January 25, 2022, that there had been a match.

That summer, Allison and Larry had an emotional, nearly hour-and-a-half conversation with Collins and his wife Alex over Zoom.

Collins, a social worker, says he is glad his family quickly relieved him of his guilt. “I always thought that was really cool,” he adds. He and his wife have remained close to Nate’s parents, at one point visiting Nate’s Place during a trip to California.

Related: Why living organ donor Brian Flynn donated a kidney and part of his liver to two strangers in two years

The Washington man tells PEOPLE he feels a deep connection with Nate and his family. Their friendship is everything he dreamed of.

“I really wanted to meet the donor family, have some kind of relationship with them,” Collins says.

And while he realizes his transplant may not last “forever,” Collins, who is now expecting a baby with Alex, feels like there is no longer “this dark cloud” hanging over him.

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He has also found solace in carrying on Nate’s legacy.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we crossed paths in this way,” he adds. “So while I still carry my own legacy and my own purpose, I think I still carry his as well. I think I have been given the responsibility to convey that mentality: helping people, encouraging people, being there for people, for both of us.

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.

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