#142 Eric James – Victoria B.C. man pleads for a kidney – for himself and others

On November 21st, 2022 Eric James posted the following on Facebook: “Alright cards on the table time. I’ve been on dialysis for coming up on 5 years now. I have been extremely grateful for the care given to me by the good people at Island Health and BC Renal. But the fact of the matter is that my body cannot take much more dialysis. Each run is draining more and more of what life I have in me in an effort to keeping going each day and it is all starting to catch up to me. I need a kidney transplant. The wonderful thing about our kidneys is that we have two of them and you only need one to live a perfectly normal and healthy life. My step-mother is proof of this, she donated her kidney to my brother Ryan a couple of years ago and is doing just fine. In fact, when you do donate, your remaining kidney grows to make up the difference, because the body is hella awesome that way. I’ve had a hard time asking people about donations and I’ve spent the last five years passively waiting, hoping someone would come forward willing to donate. This has not happened. I remain on the provincial list but because of my blood type the wait has been long and there is no indication of that changing any time soon. Blood type matching is important for transplants (among a whole host of other matching), and my blood type is B+ (also somewhat of a life motto these days). But we do not need to match in order for you to donate and help me out. There is an exchange program for people who can bring live donors forward. It means that I might not end up with your kidney in me, but I will get one and so will other people in the exchange who are in just as much need as me. The gold standard for transplantation of any organ is a live donor, the success rate is much higher for the recipient and average function times are 20 years plus. I am 35 years old today, which means a successful live donation could see me to 55+ while living a healthier and better life. If this is something that catches your eye please reach out to me on this site or by email at ejamesYYJ@gmail.com. We can talk about what the process looks like and maybe get to a place where a much needed piece of you can end up inside of me and I can live a somewhat more normal and healthy life. Thank you. 🥰🩸💉💊🩺❤️💚 #GaleForceWins sat with Eric via Zoom and talked with him about his story and we are hoping that someone is a match for him.