Hello! Thanks for visiting our page for Emily’s Kidney Transplant and Tina's Sharing her Spare! I (Sarah) am Emily's and Tina's sister and am starting this fundraiser to help pay for costs related to the surgery not covered by insurance and housing/travel before and after the surgery for both Emily and Tina.

A little background to start: Several years ago, Emily was diagnosed with Lupus, an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks its own tissues. In Emily’s case, it was her kidneys. Such a diagnosis did not prevent Emily from living her best life! Since the diagnosis, she met and married her wonderful husband Jeff and has been busy raising her two amazing boys Jack (14) and Kyle (9) while continuing do a job she loves in Youth and Family Discipleship at St Patrick’s Catholic Church. Emily has had some other major health issues along the way, but she has always worked through them with the most amazing attitude and positive outlook!

In the meantime, her kidneys have continued to deteriorate. About 2 years ago, she got the news from her nephrologist that it was time to consider a kidney transplant. She immediately reached out to her sister, Tina, who had made the promise years ago to give Emily one of her kidneys (even though at that time, Tina had no idea what that meant, she just knew about it from her friend Janet who had a kidney transplant).

Fast forward to present day: Tina was approved as a kidney donor after they both went through extensive medical evaluations. Even better, they turn out to be the perfect match! Transplant surgery is scheduled for Mid July 2021. Emily will be in Rochester for about 1 month after a week long hospital stay, to ensure her new kidney is doing well and loving it’s new home. She will be out of work for approximately 8 weeks. She will have our caring, nurturing mother with her as a caregiver during that time. Tina will be in Rochester for about a week total and will be out of work for about a month, all the while being cared for by her devoted husband, Raleigh . While we are very blessed that insurance will cover the cost of donor surgery and transplant surgery, it will not cover all the medical bills or the costs of traveling and lodging. Donations will be used to support Emily, Tina, and Mom's travel and lodging and all other expenses that come along with having to stay away from home for a month +, including travel expenses for Emily's husband and boys and Tina's husband so they can see and care for their loving family members.

Emily and Jeff will directly receive all funds from this website as the beneficiaries as they are responsible for all costs, including those of the kidney donor.

Please pray for successful surgeries and speedy recoveries for both Emily & Tina.

Stay tuned to see if it will be Sydney Kidney on the right or Jilly Bean on the left relocating from Tina to Emily!