Kristy – kidney recipient, Vic

Having spent most of her teenage years battling a debilitating kidney condition, Kristy is forever grateful to have not only reached her 30th birthday but to also have had a beautiful bouncing baby.

Diagnosed with IgA nephropathy at age 14, Kristy’s kidneys eventually became so inflamed they were unable to properly filter waste from her blood.

At the age of 22, her kidneys failed. Kristy was placed on dialysis and officially waitlisted for a kidney transplant.

When the call came that Kristy had been matched to an organ donor she said she was so overcome with emotions that a comedy of errors ensued.

She received the call that she had been waiting four years for, while waiting for her takeaway dinner to be ready. In the rush to get home she caught the wrong tram and had to find her way back to right her error!

“I remember crying and calling my family from the tram to tell them the news. Other people on the tram heard my conversation and when I hung up, they were all congratulating me,” she said.

Kristy is now doing well and living life to the full of her young one.

“Organ donation is truly life-changing,” she said “I’ve been able to travel overseas; I get to spend time with my partner, my mum and my two sisters — and I have a baby!"

“I think about my donor and their family every day and I want to say: thank you.”