Omemee Man In Search Of A Living Kidney Donor During Be A Donor Month

Craig Kennedy, a husband, father to three children, a school teacher and a proud farmer from Omemee has taken to Facebook to raise awareness about living kidney donation, and find a kidney for himself, during ‘Be a Donor’ month.

Kennedy was diagnosed with Polycystic Kidney Disease in 2010. At the time of his diagnosis his kidneys were still functioning well and there was no imminent threat, though he knew in the future he may face declining function and eventually require a transplant.

Kennedy says he began taking care of his health, keeping active and partaking in proactive treatment to prolong the onset of serious illness as much as possible.

Though in 2016 things took a turn for the worse.

Spring of that year his left kidney suffered irreparable damage in an accident, which accelerated his decline.

Currently his kidneys are functioning at 15 per cent, anything lower is considered kidney failure. He is now classified as having end stage kidney disease.

“You wouldn’t know it to see me, I look normal,” said Kennedy. “But I can feel it.”

With April being ‘Be a Donor’ month, Kennedy thought it would be the perfect time to begin promoting living donation, not just for himself but for everyone waiting on the donor list.

“I’m a teacher, so I’m off for March break. It was then that I realized a lot of my staff at school didn’t even know that I was sick,” said Kennedy. “I said to my wife ‘we’ve got to get this out there’ just so people knew. I’m not a very public person so it was quite hard for me to do.”

Through Facebook he has been able to reach a larger audience than he imagined, and even learned that one of his neighbours is also waiting for a kidney donation.

“Once my story went to Facebook I found out my neighbour that lives a few kilometers up the road from me is on Dialysis. He’s kept it quiet. It’s bizarre, all of a sudden you realize there’s a lot of people out there waiting for a donation. You just have to be brave enough that when someone asks how you are, you say ‘actually not good’.”

Kennedy hopes that by spreading information, he will encourage more people to not only consider becoming a donor, but to consider becoming a living donor.

“If I can find someone, great, but it’s more to promote living organ donations. When we made the first post we had so many people reach out and say they’d like to do it but they don’t know anything about it.”

According to www.beadonor.ca there are over 1600 Ontarians waiting for a life-saving transplant. 90 per cent of Ontarians support organ donation, but only 35 per cent are registered.

When someone becomes a living donor, they can either designate their organ to a certain person - and their compatibility will be tested, or they can donate anonymously to anyone that they fit with.

Kennedy notes that even if someone wanted to donate a kidney to him and they weren’t compatible, they could give it to someone else which in turn would shorten the waiting list for everyone needing a kidney.

To follow Craig’s story visit his Facebook page facebook.com/kidneydonor4craig to contact him, email livingkidneydonor4craig@gmail.com.

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