Photo: Facebook

Margarete Simons' life revolves around a piece of medical equipment.

Twice a week, for three hours a day, the Coldstream woman is hooked up to a dialysis machine to help her failing kidneys.

The 67 year old has been dealing with kidney issues all of her life and her filtration rate is currently at seven per cent.

“That is stage-five kidney failure,” Simons said. “My kidneys were never really strong. I had a lot of issues when I was little with kidney infections.”

Before moving to the Okanagan 18 years ago, Simons was placed on a long-term medication for another condition that turned out to do more harm to her kidneys.

“I never should have been on that medication for any long-term period of time because it is deadly for the kidneys,” she said.

When she and her husband moved to Vernon, her new doctor took her off the medication, but the damage had been done.

In need of a kidney transplant, Simons reached out to various social media platforms in hopes of finding a live donor, something that would change her life.

Simons has been on the donor list for the past two years.

She does not drink or smoke and lives a healthy lifestyle and doctors said she is an “excellent” candidate for a transplant.

Her husband offered his kidney, but was not eligible to be a donor due to a medical condition.

All expenses for a kidney donor are covered by the Kidney Foundation. However, the recipient must pay for their own expenses, which can amount to thousands of dollars a month, something the couple have been saving up for over the past few years.

Simons said donors typically go on to live a healthy, normal life. Plus, they have the satisfaction of knowing they saved another person's life.

“A live kidney is the best route to go because they can do full testing on the person who is donating that kidney,” she said, adding a deceased kidney could be transplanted, but “there are some things they can not test for so you are on the fence a little bit more with how you are going to do with it.”

To donate a kidney for Simons, contact the St. Paul's Hospital Donor Team at 604-806-9027 or 1-877-922-9822 and refer to her personal transplant number 24367.