JoIeeza Pollard saved a life last week, but she’s never met the person, or even knows whose life she saved.
In November 2021, the 33-year-old Barrie resident filled out paperwork to see if she was a match to her 41-year-old uncle, who has lived with kidney disease his whole life.
After a plethora of tests, samples and a CT scan, it was ultimately determined that she was not a suitable match due to his antibodies.
“He’s been a three-time transplant recipient and because of that we didn’t match,” she said.
While that news was obviously disappointing, Pollard didn’t let it stop her from continuing with her plan to donate one of her kidneys and decided to donate through Canadian Blood Services Canada’s Kidney Paired Donation program, which matches transplant candidates with suitable living donors.
The program gives people the chance to become a living kidney donor while ensuring that someone they want to help receives a needed kidney, even if they are not a direct match.
“He’s been through a lot. He’s had kidney disease his whole life,” she said of her uncle. “We went to the same elementary school and I remember in the third grade and my teacher at the time asked me if I was related to him.
"He remembered having him in his class and also remember when he left for good because he couldn’t complete school because he had to go do dialysis for 17 hours a week," Pollard added.
She and her uncle were then placed in a program by University Health Network, which enabled them to be paired with another recipient and donor, who in turn would be matched as well with another recipient and donor … and so on and so on.
Her uncle underwent his surgery Sept. 27 and Pollard was scheduled to go under the knife on Oct. 10.
With less than 12 hours until her surgery, Pollard said she wasn’t feeling any nerves.
“I met with the surgeon ... and he took a lot of that. I didn’t have much anxiety about it ... my grandfather did it 25 years ago, so I didn’t have nerves about living with one kidney. As far as the actual surgery goes, the surgeon made it all sound very easy,” she said last Wednesday.
“The only jitters I used to have were needles, but this whole process has made it so that I am not really that scared of needles now.”
Pollard said she expects her recovery to take between three to six weeks, but as she works from home she won’t have too much difficulty in her healing process, but knowing that not only will her sacrifice help someone in need of a new kidney, it also meant her uncle was able to get a healthy kidney as well.
“We are happy for my uncle who already got his kidney and he’s pretty elated, too,” she said, adding her uncle is doing well and has even been helping her prepare for her own surgery by driving her to some appointments and waiting at the hospital during her surgery.
A program like this, she said, is extremely important, as it helps find kidneys for individuals who have difficulty matching donors.
“People that have little hope, it helps them out,” she said.
A few days after undergoing her surgery Pollard is back home recovering and she has zero regrets.
"It was a success. Painful, of course, but worth it to know another family is as happy as ours knowing that someone is able to resume their lives again after being on hold for so long," she said. "I learned that my remaining kidney will grow in the next few weeks to make up for the lack of a second kidney."
Pollard said she was even awarded with a 'Gift of Life' medallion, something she said she will always cherish.
"My heart goes out to those who have to suffer regularly just to live a stable life, including those who have to go through diabetes and IVF injections, let alone organ failure. I only lived a short piece of what is a regular week to week for them with no end in sight most times," she said.
"This Thanksgiving weekend, I (was) thinking of how happy I am for my uncle and my family with how close this brings us and am even happier knowing I helped another family come closer and have something to be really thankful for this Thanksgiving as well," Pollard added.
