First, I want to say how grateful I am to share our story. I hope that it would inspire just one person to become a living donor. It’s how one helps another. If not me then who? In a split moment in March 2012 my boyfriend of 9+ years was diagnosed with end stage renal failure due to hypertension. Boy, life can change in an instant. First the diagnosis, then 100% recovery! I was the first person to screen and the first person to match.
I just knew when the phlebotomist asked me who I was screening for that I would be his match. Sure enough, the transplant was December 18, 2012. Since then both of our lives are normal and he is not tethered to a machine sucking the life out of “us” anymore. I don’t have to see him endure the pain and discomfort it brings. The only thing he complains of since receiving my kidney is that he feels like crying a lot – he says it’s the female hormones left over in the kidney I gave him!
Ask yourself, if not you then who?
— Sheila Hines
All our best wishes to you and your boyfriend, Sheila! Thank you so much for sharing this touching story! We hope it makes your boyfriend cry 🙂