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Can you help spread the word that I need a kidney? You can purchase a shirt at the Spirit Recognition Store. Click on this link: https://spirit100.com/sharon/shop/home

Tammy Ridge has created a website that offers you possibilities in size, type of shirt, color, etc. Go to that website or visit the Spirit Recognition at 639 Central Avenue, Pawtucket, RI; phone: 401-722-0500.

I have completed my second week of peritoneal dialysis at home. I am so grateful that this treatment is available to me. At the same time, this development prompts me to intensity my search for a living kidney donor. I appreciate any way in which you can support me.

My friend Fran

Sharon with friends: Eileen, Jane

My grandniece graduates

In the morning when you got dressed

you adorned your gown with photo buttons

remembering those deceased:

your dad still holding you dearly,

your grandfather holding your aunt,

giving honor the way you did as a child

when you would play your violin

and tap dance for them.

You stride across the stage

in your black high heels you call

my democracy shoes.

As your name Chatham Rose

echoes like a rippling tide,

tears trickle down my cheeks.

Memories flash for you:

how you believed in the dressed up

Easter Bunny, how you still hear

Santa’s Song, You better watch out,

how you joked with Uncle Ted

and played with cousin Sarah. 

Under the black cap, your red hair

flows and you walk with ease.

Your gown enhanced: royal blue sash

for President of the Clas

which I knew, but then the surprise:

the gold ropes, Magna cum Laude,

the tent, now loud with applause. 

Sharon A Foley

Chatham Rose McCloskey

I’m so pleased to announce that my chapbook, A Kind of Mercy, is now on sale through Finishing Line Press. The following is the direct link: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/a-kind-of-mercy-by-sharon-a-foley/

Chatham Rose McCloskey, my sister Maureen’s granddaughter, graduated from Emmanuel College today. I had the pleasure of watching her graduation in real time through virtual streaming, and seeing photos posted on Facebook by her mother,

Tracey McCloskey. Chatham’s spirit shines forth–her vibrancy, sincerity, and beauty.

She had the honor of being the President of her Class of 2025. On her gown, she wore a pin of her father, Ken McCloskey, holding her as a baby. I’m sure Ken was present, bursting with pride of his daughter. Chatham’s extended family on her maternal side were present, glowing with pride. Her cousin, Sarah Cabral, was also present, recalling their childhood ties. My sister Maureen holds all in a heart full of love. We are so grateful!

Chatham Rose McCloskey, Graduate of Emmanuel College, 5/10/2025

RUMFORD — Waiting is never fun, but in some cases the stakes are high indeed.
For the 295 Rhode Islanders waiting for a kidney transplant as of May, 2024, the three- to five-year wait to find a donor match – and in the best case, a living donor – can be fraught with anxiety. It’s a wait that Sharon Foley of St. Margaret’s Parish in Rumford walked into three years ago when a bit of vertigo led her to visit her doctor.
A basic kidney workup showed a function of below 20. The normal kidney function range is between 20 and 80.
The diagnosis of stage 4 chronic kidney disease changed Foley’s life in an instant. But aside from the vertigo, she had no other symptoms – a situation she says is common in kidney disease.
“When I was younger, I was on a medication for 20 years,” Foley said. “The medication scarred my kidneys. The damage had been done much earlier in life.”
It was only in 1992, when Foley had been taking the medication for 17 years, that a nutritionist did a hair analysis that showed the danger the medication was posing to her health; but, she said, he did not make the connection to kidney damage. She then worked with her doctor to come off of the medication and credits her nutritionist with unknowingly saving her kidneys from continued damage, but by then the devastation had been wrought.
Because the kidneys’ function is to filter impurities from the blood, impaired kidney function negatively impacts all other organs. The kidneys also produce hormones that “help control the blood pressure, stimulate the bone marrow to produce red blood cells, and absorb calcium from food in order to strengthen bone,” according to the website of the Living Kidney Donor Program at Rhode Island Hospital. Healthy kidney function is vital to survival.
Foley was put on a waiting list for a living kidney donor two years ago. Since her initial diagnosis, her disease has progressed to stage 5.
Why such a long wait for a donor?
“You’re asking a huge commitment from somebody,” Foley said. “You’re asking somebody to give up a part of their body.”
A living donor is optimal, Foley said, because a kidney transplant has a better chance of success when the organ comes from a living person. According to the Cleveland Clinic website, kidneys from living donors have a functional life of between 15 to 20 years, as opposed to the 10- to 15-year lifespan of kidneys from deceased donors. There is also a much higher chance that a living donor’s kidney will start functioning right after transplant, reducing or eliminating the need for dialysis.
Foley said that in her experience, people who have been kidney donors view the experience as an overwhelmingly positive one, the “wonderful experience of saving someone’s life.”
Many potential donors, both friends and complete strangers, have contacted Foley with their willingness to donate; but each time something has caused the plan to fall through. Even though about 25 percent of the population is willing to donate, Foley said, the challenge lies in finding a good match.
But Foley isn’t just sitting around waiting. She’s become a vocal advocate for raising awareness of the need for living kidney donors, arranging a workshop titled “Lives Forever Changed: Stories of Hope and Compassion” at Cranston Public Library in May, 2024. About 50 people attended the workshop, said Foley, which included speakers who had both given and received living donor kidneys. Dr. Basma Merhi, Medical Director of the Living Donor Program at Rhode Island Hospital, opened the workshop with an overview of the importance of donation and the requirements that living donors must meet.
“I do get tired,” she said. “But it doesn’t prevent me from doing my work. I’m very fortunate that it doesn’t interfere with anything in my daily life right now.”
Yet as time passes without a transplant, Foley may eventually have to go on dialysis and her kidney disease can become terminal.
“If I don’t get the transplant my life will be shorter than if I do get the transplant,” she said.
Foley has been planning another “Lives forever Changed” workshop to take place at the Seekonk Public Library on March 26.
“It’s really important to get the word out there because it’s not understood easily,” she said, emphasizing that being a living donor is more than a good deed – it’s a calling.
“We don’t think of the need for self-sacrifice in this manner,” she said. “It’s kind of a radical thing.”

To learn more about the Living Donor Program at Rhode Island Hospital, visit https://www.brownhealth.org/centers-services/transplant-center/living-kidney-donor-program or call 401-444-8562 or 1-888-444-0102.
If you would like to find out if you might be a good living kidney donor for Sharon Foley, visit www.sharonneedsakidney.org or email SharonNeedsaKidney@gmail.com.

By Kathleen Troost-Cramer, Rhode Island Catholic Correspondent

Sharon Foley, a parishioner of St. Margaret Parish in Rumford, has been diagnosed with stage 4 chronic kidney disease and is hopeful that a living donor may feel called to help change her life.

Photo courtesy of Sharon Foley

Rhode Island Catholic, February 6, 2025

I’m still searching for a living kidney donor. If you can help, email me at SharonNeedsaKidney@gmail.com

My chapbook A Kind of Mercy is accepted for publication and will be released in September, 2025. These poems take you inside my convent life as a Sister of Mercy.

Go to my website: SharonNeedsaKidney.com to listen to my poem, Year Four, I’m Chief of the Laundry.

I’m still searching for a kidney. Any donor, any age, any blood type will do. If you don’t match me, I’m still eligible for a kidney swap. Share this video of Lives Forever Changed

Lives Forever Changed, 5/29/2024, Cranston Public Library