Daniel gets a kidney!!!!

Hello community - this summer my brother will be travelling across the country to donate a kidney so his son Daniel can receive a kidney. Both Daniels parents, Cosmo and Leah are entrepreneurs and will both be unable to work for a few months as they heal and support healing. It’s been a long journey for this kick ass kid and his parents❤️ 


Following from Cosmo:

Anyone who knows us knows the long journey we have been on as a family from even before Daniel was born. His first interventions happened in Utero and have continued until now at age 14. He has shown us all miracles are possible over and over again. 

We have laughed and cried in amazement as he has triumphed over so many obstacles in his short life. He was put on dialysis at 5 days old and received daily dialysis at home by Leah and and I who were training to be his live in nurses. This continued until age 5 where he was finally big enough to receive a kidney transplant. The procedure changed our lives in such a positive way. Daniels quality of life improved in ways we could not imagine. His growth and ability to learn and focus and play and run. All the things a young human needs in their life to thrive, he now has access to.

His kidney lasted 7 years until 2 years ago when his body decided to reject it. This was sudden and devastating to all who know and love him but most of all to him. Previously he had been too young to know any different and being on dialysis was but a distant memory. Now he was at an age where he could contemplate his mortality in the way we have all been since the day he was born. 

As his parents we now had to share the burden of this stress with him. To share decisions with him that he was still too young to reconcile but too old and aware to be left out of the conversation. Leah and I along with our extended family have struggled to find the right solution to move forward. 

Leah was excluded years ago from Being a donor for health reasons and so I as well as a few other family members like Nicole, her sister and Grace, my mother submitted ourselves for testing. Alongside we also began looking into the option of a deceased donor. Daniels match needs are very specific and rare to find so any option was on the table.

There is a program in Canada called the Paired Kidney Exchange program that uses algorithms to match a pool of donors. Long story short I ended up getting approved with Daniel for the program and after a long review and testing process we are finally going to get him a new kidney in July!!!

I will be donating my kidney to an anonymous donor on the 10 th of July and Daniel will receive his kidney from an anonymous donor on the 11 th. 

We have had so much support from our family and friends and community over the years and feel so blessed that through all of this we have managed to live an incredible quality of life.

Daniel lives half time in two homes. In both households we are self employed and when we need to take time away it's a challenge financially.

The kidney foundation, our Canadian medical system and our families have made this manageable. Leah an I as his parents have had to both book off for at least two months as well as our life partners in order to be present for both of these upcoming surgeries and the aftercare required.

We could use a little extra love in the form of financial support and it's difficult to put out there  but it would really help!

If you would like to offer some support for our family during this exciting and challenging time we would deeply appreciate the support❤️❤️