An Orillia woman with an autoimmune disease is hoping to find a living donor to help combat her illness and get her life back on track.
For the past 17 years, Denene Bird has lived with primary biliary cirrhosis, a disease that causes progressive destruction of bile ducts in the liver.
She has been on a wait list for a transplant for a decade, and although she has moved up the list during that span, she was told by her doctor a living donor could help expedite the transplant she needs.
“I’m getting to the top. I’m No. 12, (but) I was just in Toronto, and they said if I could get myself a living donor, it’s a lot faster,” Bird said.
“I’ve been waiting forever.”
The condition has caused swelling, extreme itchiness on her body, and fatigue, and presented cognitive side effects for Bird over the years.
“Unfortunately, right now, I’m always tired,” she said. “I have a hard time walking because of energy level. I’m swollen like no tomorrow.”
She said she can have issues with memory and confusion due to the illness, which ultimately caused her to lose her driver’s licence earlier this fall.
“It was devastating,” she said. “I would go everywhere, just around town, but I’d be everywhere.”
The illness has affected her marriage and friendships, she said, as the symptoms take their toll on her life.
“I’ve had to turn so many friends away. It’s really put my life on hold,” she said.
“Living like this is very, very hard.”
After waiting for a decade, Bird hopes she can enlist the public’s help in finding a transplant.
To combat her illness, she needs a partial transplant — a piece of someone’s liver. The organ can regenerate following a donation.
“I just really hope that there’s somebody kind enough out there that … sympathizes with someone like myself,” she said. “It’s an organ that will grow back.”
In order to be compatible, Bird said, a prospective donor needs to be 18 to 60 years old, with type A or O blood.
She said people with certain health conditions may still be eligible to donate.
“Even people that have had any type of hepatitis — hepatitis C, A, B; it doesn’t matter — they are still welcome to transplant,” she said.
More may be read about becoming a living donor here.
Those interested in connecting with Bird can reach out to [email protected].
