A former Bushey resident is making a heartfelt plea for a live kidney donor after being told by doctors that she is in desperate need of a transplant.
Sharon Capon lived in Bushey for eight years and now lives in Borehamwood with her husband, Daniel. She was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, a lifelong condition where parts of the digestive system become inflamed, at age 12 while living in Australia. She was, at the time, the youngest person in Australia to be diagnosed with the condition.
Now 52, Sharon has had around 30 operations to tackle the condition and has lived with an ileostomy bag for 15 years.
Heartbreakingly for Sharon, this is not the only health complication she has suffered with. Ten years ago, she was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease and, in the last year, her condition has rapidly deteriorated. The condition has now progressed to stage 5, which means she is in renal failure; her kidneys are no longer able to filter and clean her blood, which causes unsafe levels of waste products to build up in her body.
Kidneys from live donors have an expected lifespan of 20 years compared to five years for a kidney from a deceased donor and have reduced chances of rejection.
Without a live donor, Sharon will be placed on the deceased donor list, where she will likely have to wait several years for a donation. This in turn means she will need dialysis to keep her alive. Due to her Crohn’s, doctors say that going on dialysis will likely make her too weak to undergo transplant surgery if a donor is eventually found.
Sharon is now reliant on the kindness of a stranger to come forward and donate. Following her post on social media, 20 “total strangers” came forward and expressed an interesting in donating, but she is still searching. Sharon, who is mother to Jessica, 26, and Olivia, 22, says she is “desperate” to find a suitable donor.
Speaking of what it would mean for someone to donate, she said: “It would be the gift of giving life and of enabling me to see my daughters marry and to have grandchildren. It’s priceless.”
If you would like to test to become a live kidney donor for Sharon, please email ICHC-tr.livingdonorcoordinators@nhs.net and quote her consultant’s name, Neil Duncan.
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