CECILIA IS GONE‼️

KIDNEY NEEDED, HELP CECILIA LIVE
Cecilia’s kidneys failed.  In order to extend her life, while awaiting a kidney transplant, she reluctantly agreed to receive dialysis. It’s been difficult for her, and enduring treatment and the lengthy commute to and from the city multiple times s week compounds what she endures. She just had surgery to clear a blockage that was interfering with dialysis, a blockage so large it could have caused a heart attack. Her veins can become so damaged dialysis will no longer be possible. PLEASE help save Cecilia’s life, a kidney donor MUST be found‼️

Medical expenses are continually mounting, so any donations are greatly appreciated.

Applications  for a kidney donor are  being accepted.  You don’t have to be a match. We have NO candidates at this time, No time to start all over. So consider saving a life, donate a kidney. Two lives will be saved. Cecilia’s and whoever matches your kidney. This is a kidney swap program. The live donor’s kidney goes to someone else who needs a kidney that matches the donor, and in exchange Cecilia gets a kidney that matches her. Critical program for people in this stage of kidney failure. She remains on the donor list, but that can take years, years she doesn’t have‼️

HISTORY: Cecilia was first diagnosed with Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) when she was 19. It's genetic, and killed her father in 2002. She was young, athletic, healthy & suddenly devastated by drastic changes to her life. She became the poster child for PKD, traveling the USA in a motorhome with her beloved Dalmatian, Max, as a spokesperson for PKD. One of the hardest parts of this deadly diagnosis was realizing she would never have children, so her focus shifted to animals to fill this void. Her passion drove her to become founder of Paws Across America Advocacy (PAAA), now a nationwide grassroots movement in all 50 states, fighting for animal rights, giving them a voice, making progress with the help of hand-chosen leaders who share her passion.

Over the years the PKD has progressed, her kidneys are now quite huge, filled with cysts & crowding all other vital organs, compromising their ability to function as they need to in order to sustain life! Her liver is compromised now too! It has become urgent to undergo kidney transplant surgery ASAP, or she won't survive. 

Cecilia has lived a selfless, simple life. She cared for her ill mother, who was her best friend and support system, until she died in 2014. Money set aside by her mother to cover the inevitable transplant surgery had to be used to help care for her step-father. There is nothing left.

Now here she is, in her 50s, in dire need of surgery to save her life. She still has so much to accomplish, so much living left to do. She's continually given to everyone else, supported all the causes she passionately believes in, given voice to the voiceless, please help her now, it's time to give back. Consider donating. No amount is too small, it all adds up.

#KidneyTransplantFundForCecilia

Photos below: Top photo is a picture of a normal healthy kidney, the size of a human fist. The photo below it is a PKD diseased kidney, which can become so large they can weigh up to 50 pounds each, and can be larger than footballs!  Cecilia has two diseased kidneys, each about the size of a football. She also now has an enlarged liver caused by PKD, as it can affect all the major organs, causing deadly crowding of organs as it is doing in her case.

Photo of Cecilia taken on a day trip to her beloved California mountains.

Photo of Cecilia after a procedure, done to buy her some time. You can see how enlarged her abdomen has grown from the PKD. They've grown more since this photo was taken. 

This shows how enlarged Cecilia's kidneys and liver have become. You can only image how crowded her vital organs have become! Her situation is critical!

Cecilia Maida traveling USA as poster child for genetic polycystic kidney disease (PKD) in RV sponsored by Coachman.


Cecilia receiving award from Polycystic Kidney Research Foundation in late 90s, for public awareness efforts to make PKD a household name. Her goal was to educate people, hoping to recognize the name of the disease responsible for wiping out entire families. It had already killed her Dad in 2002, and she will be next without this transplant.

Cecilia and her mother, she was her mom's life-long caregiver. Cecilia still helped her in Hospice after to sudden diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in 2014. Her mother was terrified of dying and leaving her ill daughter alone.

Cecilia and her rescue dog Max in Arizona desert as they traveled USA for public awareness and a cure for genetic PKD. She was airing on TV with a transplant patient that had lost everything, and was living with children trying to keep their father's kidney by cost sharing for anti-rejection drugs. This may be Cecilia's next financial issue, but cost of drugs required won't be known until after transplant. 

Cecilia and Jennifer Kanady, who helped Co-Found Paws Across America Advocacy groups in all 50-states, at their first nationwide rally when her health was stronger back in June, 2015.

CT scan done of Cecilia many years ago, depicting the enormous cysts that take up her entire abdomen (which are now even  larger), crowding out her other vital organs, putting her in her current life threatening situation.

Cecilia in hospital with complications that have escalated her kidneys towards failure in last several months. After this picture was taken, Cecilia's kidneys continued to fail quickly and she may have to undergo dialysis in upcoming months even if her donor is cleared.