St. Margaret’s Parishioner Seeks a Living Kidney Donor

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 [email protected].

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