Julie Dodds has a rare kidney disease. She's been looking for a living donor (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

ORGAN TRANSPLANTS

Kamloops woman hoping to find living donor before going on deceased waitlist

Dec 5, 2019 | 5:26 PM

KAMLOOPS — Julie Dodds worries one day not being well enough to take care of her three boys.

“Dialysis can take so much time and it’s so, so hard on your body that how could I be there for them?” she wonders. “They’re 13, 11 and 8, so it’s a busy time. They all need to go places and do things. They’re very active and you want to do all of that for them, right.”

Dodds has a rare genetic kidney disease, the same disease that took her father at 54 years old in 2011. She’s been actively looking for a living donor. Since posting about her story on Facebook in August, she has received message from a couple potential donors, including one she read this week.

“It must be an anonymous donation. He must be doing it just out of the goodness of his heart and saw my story somewhere, so messaged me if I was still looking for a donor,” says Dodds.

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Receiving an organ from a living donor is the fastest way to receive a transplant. A new report from the Canadian Institute For Health Information shows the demand in Canada for organ transplants is rising.

Last year, nearly 2,800 transplant procedures were performed, an increase of 33 per cent over the last decade. However, thousands of Canadians are still on a waitlist. The report indicates 223 people in this country died last year, waiting for an organ transplant.

“I keep thinking if I had been stubborn that may have been me,” says Dorothy Drinnan, who received a kidney transplant in 2013. “It’s sad it’s come to that.”

Drinnan received the kidney from a long-time friend in Manitoba. With such a long waitlist, she believes the living donor route is the best way to go.

“If I could do anything I would tell people to looking into the Living Donor Program. If you’re not a direct match for someone and you want to donate, by all means check out the Parent Exchange. It works well. My friend in Manitoba, she was determined, even though she didn’t have the same blood type as myself. She was bound and determined she was still going to do it.”

Meanwhile, Julie is set to travel to Vancouver in the coming weeks for a consultation at St. Paul’s Hospital. She hopes to find a match sooner than later.

“It’d be amazing, yeah. I’m a pretty active, healthy person. I don’t smoke, I don’t drink. I don’t do anything. I’ll take care of it. I feel I can make it last a long time.”