Dear Friends, My sweet brother, Glenn, has been on dialysis since February 1, 2021 and is in need of a kidney transplant. He is not the type of person who will reach out and make an appeal for a living donor himself, so I am. He suffered kidney failure in January 2021 and was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease. In order to survive, he has dialysis 3 times a week for 3-4 hours a session. He will have to do this for the rest of his life. This severely restricts his quality of life since it is very difficult for him to travel. This forced him into an early retirement because of the rigors and toll of dialysis.
I know one person, personally, who donated a kidney to her father. I have another long-term friend who recently received a kidney. One of my aunts received a kidney. One of my favorite authors recently posted on Instagram that his best friend from childhood donated a kidney to him. This prompted me to make this request. I posted this on Facebook and learned that another person I knew also donated a kidney to her father. (Both of the friends who donated kidneys their fathers have said that they are willing to speak about their experience with anyone who might be interested.)
About Glenn. Uncle Glenn remembers everyone’s birthday in our extended family and sends them cards in the mail. He also gives gifts to close family members without fail. Sometimes the gifts will be for a special day; other times the gifts will be “just because” he saw something for you. The gifts will be thoughtful for the recipient and will have been purchased quite inexpensively; in our family, Glenn is known as the bargain whisperer.
Glenn is a very modest man who doesn’t ask for help even though he is always helping others. He has mentored dozens of young people by taking them on tours to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) as well as organizing and hosting Career Fairs at local high schools and mentoring young Black men.
Glenn is an incredibly talented singer with “perfect pitch.” He sings with his church choir in St. Louis, Missouri where he lives. He also sang with the IN-UNISON Choir with the St. Louis Symphony orchestra when his health allowed him to do so. Hearing him sing at our mother’s 90th birthday party this past August was a highlight of my day and her life. He apologized that his voice didn’t have full-strength but he delivered.
Kidney disease runs in our family. Our mother is on dialysis as well, as was an uncle and cousin who both died from the disease. I offered to be a donor but am not an appropriate candidate, to my great sorrow.
About Kidney Transplantation – Glenn is on the waitlist for a kidney from a deceased donor along with more than 95,000 other people in this country. Many deceased donors do not have viable kidneys to donate, which has caused a shortage and long wait for this type of transplant. The average wait for a kidney from a deceased donor is 5 years but can be much longer.
Finding a living donor is Glenn’s best chance to improve the quality of his life. A person can live and full and healthy life with only one kidney. Not only does living kidney donation involve minimal risk to the donor (less than 1% experience long-term complications) it also increases the quality of life of the recipient and gives them a greater health outcome expectancy than a kidney from a diseased donor.
I hope you will share our request with others. While this request is specifically for my brother, there are thousands of people who are waiting, so I also appeal for them.
To learn more about living donation, a great resource is the American Transplant Foundation’s “Living Donation Guide” on their website (AmericanTransplantFoundation.org). Here you can review statistics surrounding donation, learn more about the process, and read the stories of others who have given this gift of life. If you or anyone you know has any questions about my brother’s situation and is interested in being screened, please direct message me. Thank you for taking the time to read about my brother and for your consideration.
In loving community, Candelaria