Here is a great recap about the world record holders for the most living donors gathered in one place at the Chicago Living Donor Rally in April of this year, 2018. Photo credit above: John Martin Photography, Blog post by Laurie Lee:
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This post is dedicated to my remarkable, living kidney donor, Fran Moore Becker, whose golden kidney has given me countless golden moments to enjoy a healthy life for the last 16 years. Thank you, dear Fran. Your heart is also golden! July 16, 2018 marks my 16th kidney anniversary. When a milestone date matches the calendar date, it’s called a Golden Anniversary. I’ve been working on a “Golden Kidney” Series While creating the series, I dIscovered a new word with a concept that immediately touched me with its deep, symbolic meaning for all transplant recipients. The Japanese word is KINSUKUROI, also spelled Kindzukuroi. It is the ancient Japanese artform of healing and restoring broken ceramics using gold, adding precious new beauty while extending life. KINSUKUROI easily relates to my own life with kidney disease and being fortunate to receive the Gift of Life, a kidney transplant, from a living Hero. Like Kinsukuroi’s golden repair to a broken bowl, the gift of a kidney repairs a body in order to breathe meaningful beauty into a new and healthier life, one that is stronger and more resilient than before. My golden kidney is nothing short of precious, just like gold itself. Kintsugi pottery, as the genre is called, actually means Golden Joinery. Pottery with these repairs can be viewed online, and in many museum collections. I’ve posted a few below. As an artist, I was always intrigued with imperfections in objects, which may be why I love vintage and antique treasures. There are almost no perfect antiques. They’ve likely been scarred along their path. Scars gave items character. They never bothered me on the antique objects I’ve collected. While I didn’t love the scars on my arm skin after thousands of needle sticks during a decade of dialysis, or after transplant surgery, I accepted them. I can’t fill my scars, or the accompanying wrinkles of time’s passage, with golden lacquer, but I feel whole and find beauty in my life with the gift of my golden kidney from a remarkable living donor Hero. Learning about Kinsukuroi and researching its meaning was both serendipitous and timely. When I introduced the first of these Golden Kidney pendants on Facebook, I only hoped for a few opinions. I was stunned to find that they spoke deeply to an audience of transplant recipients and donors who then shared the post with thousands of others on Facebook. We need healing and we need symbols of healing in our lives. The golden healing we receive with a transplant carries a depth of feeling unlike anything I’ve ever experienced Take 20% off my Golden Kidney Series through 7/17/18. The sale has this jewelry featured in both my Etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/KidneyJewelry and my website, www.Transplantgifts.com. Sale is stock on hand only, so shop early for first dibs! Enjoy this rare 20% sale on my Golden Kidney Series! Best wishes for many golden opportunities in your life.
Getting a Kidney Transplant? You are entering your Golden Days! Transplants Bring GOLDEN Opportunities. Transplants are Full of GOLDEN Promise. Transplants bring a GOLDEN Time in Life for Patients. Newfound health brings joy and a new sense of pride. After Life on Dialysis, a Kidney Transplant is the best Gift of Gold one could ever hope for. The kidneys and hearts of kidney donors are as Golden as it gets. See my latest jewelry group, the Golden Kidney Series, for symbolic and meaningful gifts for new kidney recipients, living donors, or family members of loved ones who donated the ultimate Gift of Life after death.
I’m a kidney recipient, so specialize in Kidney jewelry, but here are a few other transplant related items that These key rings began as an innocent post when I was simply looking for an opinion from followers on my Facebook business page: facebook.com/transplantgifts.
I welcome guest blogger, Altruistic Kidney Donor, Laurie Dickinson Lee, a woman I admire for her selflessness, positivity and influence in the Chicago transplant community. She is also one of the coordinators of the upcoming April 21 event at the BEAN Sculpture in Chicago’s magnificent Millennium Park, where living organ donors from across the country will gather around the largest kidney in the world, in an attempt to earn the Guinness World Record for the most living organ donors in one place. It will be newsworthy and hopefully will get some press about the extreme need for more living organ donation. Donors, organ recipients, transplant community and the curious public are all welcome. See my past blog post about the event and where to obtain fundraiser tickets. I encourage you to comment here on your own experiences with organ donation, perhaps the inspiration behind your decision to donate, or what thoughts come to mind after reading Laurie’s beautiful essay. This essay was formerly published in the Organ Transplant Support newsletter in December, 2017.
My dad’s liver transplant made a major impact on me. I am a person who inherently wants to give. I am a giver! My dad’s liver donor has given me more than 5 years (and hopefully 40 more!) with my dad. This is hands down the biggest, and most meaningful gift anybody has ever given me. The way I see it, my family took from a system that exists if and only if others give. That is why I decided to donate my own kidney to a stranger. I chose to pay it forward, and to continue the spirit of giving by matching the gift that my family was given. Nov 22, 2017 marked the 1 year anniversary of my kidney donation. One year post donation, I feel fantastic, and the only reminder of my donation is 3 very small scars on my abdomen which I am quite proud of! My life today is back to normal. I feel as good, if not better than when I had 2 kidneys, and I have no restrictions or problems that get in the way of daily life. The first few weeks after the surgery were a little rough, but even that is a faded memory at this point. Sixty days post-surgery I was comfortably hiking around Thailand and swimming in the ocean as if nothing had happened. My left kidney belongs to someone else now somewhere in Texas. My donation sparked a 6-person transplant chain. I would love to meet somebody in the chain, however my transplant center has said that nobody in the chain is interested in meeting. The initial disappointment of not getting to meet the recipient or someone else in my chain has been replaced by gratitude. Gratitude that my recipient’s need for a kidney allowed me to honor my dad’s donor, and keep his gift moving. I experience gratitude that I have a healthy body, lifestyle, and support system that made it easy for me to make the decision to donate. The message I want to send, as it relates to my kidney donation, is to choose to experience abundance instead of scarcity in all that you do. Does that mean that I think you should donate a kidney? Well, I don’t know, it might! Do you think you should donate a kidney? I would like to see a conscious effort to change the language we use when we talk about organ donation. Have you ever heard someone say “there is a shortage of organs, 23 people die each day waiting for an organ?” That’s a statement that comes from a place of scarcity! The “shortage” is nothing more than a perception. There are millions of people just like me walking around with the ability and willingness to donate an organ while they are alive. The possibility just isn’t in their awareness yet. Do you see? There is not a shortage of organs, there is a SURPLUS of organs, enough for everybody that needs one. My mission is to bring the concept of an organ surplus into society’s consciousness. In addressing the surplus of organs out there (versus the shortage), I believe we can create the opportunity for people to give big and operate from a place of opportunity and possibility. It feels good to give big, and it feels good to be the solution to the problem. We all innately want that, and this act of service to another human is a game changer, what an amazing way to experience purpose! The ripple effect of this kindness has the ability to change the world that we live in. Let’s choose abundance, choose service, and be kind.
KIDNEYS AND TRANSPLANT GIFTS “In this post I want to highlight Myra Schwartz from Chicago and her business offering kidney and other organ transplant gifts. I met Myra 5 years ago online on eBay as she was perusing my listings for anything resembling kidneys. While we talked I learned that Myra was a kidney donor recipient. She explained to me that this gift of life often develops into a strong bond of friendship between donees and their donors. Myra wanted to express her gratitude to her donor with a gift but she couldn’t find something special. And from that realization a business was born. Soon we were talking about her ideas for custom designs and of course we were happy to work with her to bring them to fruition. Over the years we have collaborated on many of her designs. Below is an example of a piece based on her sketches that I am particularly proud of as it applies traditional Balinese scrollwork to a beautiful kidney inspired design. The collage below shows elements of the design process from various concepts to a finished piece. Myra just opened her new online store. I invite you to visit her website TransplantGifts.com. There you can read her story and view and shop her creative and unique designs. You can also follow her on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/TransplantGifts” Posted by Mark at Fifirose.com on October 15, 2017
April 23, 2018…Addendum post to the 4/21 living donor rally in Chicago…. Thank you to so many who shopped at my booth of transplant jewelry! I also loved meeting dozens of of my online customers who came by to show me they were wearing a piece purchased from me. Many said they never take it off. I was very touched that my pieces meant so much to so many. There were lots of hugs and smiles all day. It warmed my heart even in the chill of Chicago’s cool spring this year. Below is a photo of my booth at the rally while we were getting set up. I’m on the right, standing with my cousin/helper. Laurie Lee and Kate Griggs deserve a huge hand for planning this incredible day and weekend for all of us. There were wonderful speeches, great booths for organizations and vendors to show their products and services, and of course the official photo going to the Guinness people of world record fame. There were so many details at every turn but from my view, it looked like all went smoothly. The official photo below, by John F. Martin Photography, Detroit, Michigan, was taken beside Anish Kapoor’s giant Bean sculpture in Millennium Park. The photographer was across the street from the park on the top floor to fit all the donors into the photo,.There were 438 in the photo, but more were at the event who didn’t get their official paperwork in. This well establishes a world record for the most living donors in one place. The event made all the major Chicago network news. It was a fabulous experience to be there! If there is another rally, I hope to see 1000 donors and 2000 people gather to celebrate our wonderful, noble Heroes.
December 1, 2017 An attempt to establish the Guinness World Record for the most living organ donors in one photo will take place in Chicago on April 21, 2018. I thought I’d pass this along because it sounds like a great networking opportunity to meet other donors and recipients and will be a lot of fun! The organizers are looking for more donors to join in. The record stands at 250 living donors, so pass it on to anyone who might like to join us in Chicago, beat a world record and enjoy springtime in our beautiful city. Everyone will meet at the famed Millennium Park at the Iconic “Cloudgate” Sculpture by Anish Kapoor, affectionately known as the BEAN. It has to be the largest bean in the world, our very own giant mirrored kidney here in Chicago. It’s stunning and the perfect place for this event. All ticket sales will go towards Northwestern Medicine’s Transplant Village to help with living donor expenses not covered by insurance. I’ll be there and my living donor cousin is coming from Georgia, along with family supporters. The event coordinators have been granted permits for vendors so I will have my kidney jewelry there for donors, recipients and supporters. Please look for my table, stop by and say hi! If you haven’t been to Chicago, you’re in for a treat. A gorgeous lakefront, Millennium Park, amazing architecture and artwork, world class museums, fabulous food, (especially pizza), live music of every kind. Late April weather is usually delightful and if you live someplace without seasons, you’ll love our April spring. The Facebook link to sign up for this event, or read more about it is https://www.facebook.com/events/1520005218056756/ UPDATE: There is a new updated Eventbrite page with more information, including signing up, Tshirt purchases, and other information here:
Here are a few images of the Bean. Check online for many stunning photos in every imaginable light. The top photo does not have a photo credit. The bottom one is signed EvaBlue.
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 Having worked in photography, printmaking, painting, dollmaking, quilting, ceramics and lampworking glass beads, I finally found my creative home in jewelry making. While working with beads and jewelry design full time since 1991, I’ve managed to combine that passion with my experience as a kidney patient.
Since losing my own kidney function, my heroic living donor gave me not only the Gift of Life but also the true meaning of giving. The words Precious Kidney ring in my heart daily. She inspired me to create this line of special jewelry.
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