Kidney recipient encourages people to donate during Living Kidney Donation Week

Her best friend Darlene stepped up to donate a kidney of her own.

“It turned out she wasn’t my blood type, so what they do in that case — they take us in what they call a paired exchange program — they take my data, her data, find somebody who needs her kidney and then in the same group find someone who will give one up,” Drinnan explained.

Before the donation, Dorothy lived with uncertainty about her future and was dependent on dialysis – a procedure that supports kidney function.

“You can’t live on dialysis forever, we all know that. Eventually it takes its toll and you just, you die. And if you quit dialysis you’re dead anyways, so,” she continued.

BC Transplant says 509 British Columbians are waiting to receive a kidney.

Living Kidney Donations shorten that list, and can stop someone’s condition from worsening.

“You have a shorter duration of time having in-stage renal disease or requiring dialysis and so that has a very beneficial effect on your general health,” Dr. Olwyn Johnston, medical director of kidney transplant at Vancouver General Hospital.

A kidney donation doesn’t just change a recipient’s life, Dorothy’s husband says it offers a sense of relief to their loved ones.

“With me, there were times where the phone would ring and I would wonder ‘uh oh, what’s happening here?'” Dorothy’s husband, Gregg, said.

Since her transplant, Dorothy was able to watch her son get married and became a grandmother to two girls – and for that, she will forever be grateful to her best friend Darlene.

“She gave me everything, everything, everything. Everything I have, I owe to her,”

To sign up as an organ donor or learn more about it, visit TakeTwoMinutes.ca.

by Amandalina Letterio

Kidney recipient encourages people to donate during Living Kidney Donation Week

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