A BRAVE DONEGAL woman has spoken publicly on national radio about her wait for a kidney transplant.
Yvonne Mc Fadden (37) from Fallcarragh, called in to The Ryan Tubrity Show this morning from her bed in Letterkenny University Hospital.
When she was three years old one of her kidneys failed, and at at twelve, the other failed too. Yvonne had a successful transplant at 14, however at age 24 her body began to reject the kidney.
She explained how it is normal for an organ recipient to reject a kidney after ten years, however it is more difficult to get a transplant second-time around as the body’s immune system starts producing more antibodies.
For the past 14 years, Yvonne has been on dialysis. She goes to the hospital three times a week, for three and a half hour sittings. She explains how her fluids are tightly restricted. Even if she is parched, she can’t drink more than 800mls a day. She compares it to “having a hangover every day”.
A friend she met through Inishowen Gospel Choir, Tom Evans, sympathized with the day-to-day struggles Yvonne faced and amazingly, called Beaumount Hospital and asked if he could donate one of his kidneys to Yvonne. Unfortunately, due to Yvonne’s antibodies, the next kidney she gets must be a very precise match, greatly narrowing the scope of what she could be able to accept.
However, Tom is still adamant that he wants to help Yvonne, and together they have found a very unique solution.
Tom compares the database they found to a ‘dating website’ of sorts. Although Tom cannot directly donate to Yvonne, they will be paired up with another couple who would like to donate to each other – leading to a four way donation!
On Tuesday they received news that there may be a possible matching pair who are interested in getting the donations underway. Their bloods are now being tested so see if they are compatible with the other couple.
Yvonne has set up a GoFundMe page which has a goal of £5,000 – all of which will go towards Yvonne and Tom’s journey to England to carry out the donation.
You can listen to Yvonne here:
https://soundcloud.com/rte-radio-1/the-ryan-tubridy-show-organ-donation
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