“I still feel very happy to have helped someone else. It was so easy; the recovery time was easy. I would do it again if I could. I wish more people would try to donate.”
When her dad got sick and learned he needed a kidney transplant, Cindy Mark of Hillsboro, Oregon, didn’t hesitate to get tested. It just made sense to her that if she could save her dad’s life, she would. But when Cindy learned she wasn’t a match for her dad, she decided that she would just go ahead and save somebody else’s life. In October of 2010, she did.
Cindy was an altruistic donor. She doesn’t know and has never met her recipient. But watching her dad recover from his kidney transplant has given her a good idea of what her recipient may be going through.
“I can only hope that the changes in my recipient’s health have been similar to the improvements I’ve seen in my dad since his transplant. Dad’s life was miserable while he was waiting. The dialysis made him sick and severely limited his activities, but his health improved dramatically after his kidney transplant.”
Cindy doesn’t regret her decision to be a living donor at all. In fact, she insists, “I still feel very happy to have helped someone else. It was so easy; the recovery time was easy. I would do it again if I could. I wish more people would try to donate.”
