One Bay Area family extra grateful this Thanksgiving after kidney donation

Robin Pearson has a lot to be grateful for as she prepares to host her loved ones at her Danville home this Thanksgiving.

You may even say that very few people can truly be thankful this holiday season.

“We’ve been through a lot as a family,” she stated.

Her brother Kevin’s kidney failure diagnosis thirty years ago marked the beginning of it all. Without hesitation, Brian, their younger sibling, gave one of his own.

“Despite all the ‘noogies’ and all the ‘wedgies’ and all the torments that he gave me when I was a kid, I was definitely able to step up and save his life,” Brian stated.

After being diagnosed with the same ailment a few years later, Robin, the oldest sibling, required a kidney transplant. Fortunately, her aunt was compatible.

However, Brian lost his remaining kidney to COVID just when they believed the worst was gone. Brian had donated a kidney to his older brother. He was immediately at the top of the list because he had already made a donation.

“It was a huge range of emotions: frustration, anger, confusion,” he stated.

Bill, the middle kid, is the only sibling who did not require a transplant. Only then did they discover that renal failure is inherited. Kidney illness claimed the lives of their great-grandparents and grandmother.

There are more besides the Pearsons. African-American families are three times more likely than white households to experience kidney failure, according to the National Kidney Foundation.

Amy Hewitt, Executive Director of the National Kindey Foundation on the West Coast, stated, “We can’t keep up with the number of individuals who are added to the list every year.”

According to her, a catastrophic kidney shortage claims hundreds of lives every year. For this reason, in 2022, she gave her right kidney to an unknown individual.

“That feeling and creating hope for another human being is so powerful,” she stated. “Next to being a parent, this is the greatest thing that I’ve done as a human being.”

The Pearsons claim that they are able to have Thanksgiving together due of individuals like Hewitt.

“It makes it even more special that we’re all here,” Robin replied.

Visit the American Kidney Fund’s website to find out more about becoming a living donor.

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