Before Rebecca Griffin got sick, she worked in senior healthcare for 38 years, helping elders through their own healthcare journeys.
She’s worn many exciting hats throughout her career from nursing home activity director, to social worker, administrator, regional director of operations and director of business development. In her free time, she would be hiking, camping, exploring the Oregon Coast, and attending University of Oregon’s football games with her husband and son. Now that she is battling kidney disease, all those things have gotten much harder to do.
This isn’t Rebecca’s first trouble with her kidneys, in fact, over twenty years ago, she battled stage 3 cervical cancer, and the life-saving radiation treatments she received unfortunately caused permanent damage to her renal system, in which the kidneys play a major role. After several decades of fighting, Rebecca’s kidneys are beginning to faulter, and she has now been on the national waitlist for four years.
“When I am at my sickest, I feel nauseous most of the day, have low energy, and am often too tired to plan outings with my friends and family,” Rebecca says, “Waiting for a kidney transplant has been one of the hardest things I have ever experienced. The last four years of waiting have caused many emotions at times, from sadness, despair, and anxiety.” She reflects on how difficult it is to have to wait for years, holding on to hope, having family go through the ups and downs with her, some even applying to donate, only to find out they wouldn’t be a suitable match. One of the hardest parts, Rebecca says, is “Not knowing from day to day if I was going to live, and if not, what that would mean to my family.”
A kidney transplant would give Rebecca and her family a renewed sense of hope, and if successful, she says it would not only bring back her ability to spend time out in nature with her friends and family but also renew her spirit. In addition, she selflessly talks about wanting to get back to work to help others: “The ability to return to work in senior healthcare and to volunteer more for Donate Life Northwest would be incredible.”
Rebecca encourages all potential living donors to reach out to Donate Life Northwest to speak with someone who has donated a kidney before. She wants you to know the incredible difference that you can make to those like her who are waiting for a renewed sense of hope that life can and will go on.
