"You have the power to donate life."

Kidneys don’t grow on trees!

About The Reluctant Donor

Organ Donation

Suzanne’s Story

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The Reluctant Donor
The Reluctant Donor2 years ago
Love your kidneys!
They are a vital part of our wonderfully made bodies!
The Reluctant Donor
The Reluctant Donor2 years ago
You don't choose your family!
They are God's gift to you, as you are to them!
The Reluctant Donor
The Reluctant Donor2 years ago
To post an award i receive makes me uncomfortable . . . but The President's Lifetime Achievement Award is an honor because of the people I serve with at AAKP (American Association of Kidney Patients. I've also met and served in my volunteering with the PKD Foundation, PCORI, and NKF, but most of all, the kidney patients I try to serve, those in my family and those I have met working in the community of kidney patients. They are the ones who deserve an award for the battle they fight. I often say, that if someone in a family has kidney disease; the family has kidney disease. The older I get, I know that is true of any disease.
A quote I have always liked and how I feel about the award - is by Robert Browning: "My business is not to remake myself, but to make the absolute best of what God made." I promised my sister before she died that I would be her 'messenger' and to work for a cure. It's truly humbling to receive the highest level of recognition of this award!
The Reluctant Donor
The Reluctant Donor2 years ago
It’s a Boy!!! He will be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
The Reluctant Donor
The Reluctant Donor2 years ago
Medical miracles = Life! Thank you to the researchers, lab technicians, doctors, nurses (especially the hard-working nurses) and all the first responders who dedicate their lives to saving lives! God bless you . . . and thank you!
The Reluctant Donor
The Reluctant Donor2 years ago
During this month of focusing on giving thanks, imagine this!

From the Blog

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Today is our 20 Year Kidney-versary!

My cup runneth over with gratitude today as my sister and I celebrate the 20th anniversary of our successful surgeries on October 19, 2004. One of my kidneys was removed to be placed in her abdomen to give her life, untethered to the dialysis machine keeping her alive.    Dialysis, though, is a miracle of modern science, too. Our grandmother died before dialysis, just as it was being invented by Dr. Willem Kollf far away in the Netherlands. Sadly, doctors in Chicago had nothing to save her when her...

Aldo’s Army

https://gofund.me/5f4f9e90Aldo has been on dialysis for 21 years! That is truly difficult and a testament to his self-discipline and will to live. Aldo has worked full time while raising a family. Doctors have told him he is failing, Our church has united to help him find a kidney and to raise funds to support him and his family. Life . . . helping one another, loving one...

Trust in the Lord

Often when I worry, worry, worry as I am prone to do, my mother would say to me, “trust in the Lord.” Growing up in a religious family , I’ve heard that a million times. It sure is hard to do when times are tough.  It’s lovely and almost easy to do when things are going smoothly, the day is beautiful, and life is good.  It brings to mind the story of Thomas, the apostle who did not believe it when the other apostles told them, “We have seen...

26 Years Post Transplant

My sister Janice wasn’t even forty-years old when she suffered renal failure. She knew it was coming . . . the end of life as she knew it. That’s what happens when you have a genetic disease in the family – you know what you’re in for . . . As she became sicker, she added her name to the transplant waiting list. Her kidney function had declined to dangerous levels. Back then – in 1995, there weren’t as many people’s names on the waiting list compared to today....

Living Organ Donation Reimbursement Program

by Suzanne Ruff, AAKP Board of Directors Member Within families who battle kidney disease as my family does, there is a time for sorrow and a time for joy, a time for weeping and a time for dancing. For many of my family members with complete renal failure, organ donation is their only hope. Some because they had been on dialysis for many years, others because they did not want to be on dialysis. Pre-emptive transplantation (receiving a kidney transplant before dialysis) is recommended more and more. Finding a...