Mother launches desperate search for a kidney donor
A JEWISH mother with stage 5 renal failure is pleading to the community for a live kidney donor so that she can fulfil her dream of seeing her children get married.
Sharon Caplan, 52, from Borehamwood, was diagnosed with stage 3 chronic kidney disease “out of the blue” 10 years ago, just before her youngest child’s bat mitzvah.
Caplan, who has two daughters, Jessica, 26, and Olivia, 22, was given the news after years of suffering with Crohn’s.
Recalling her initial symptoms, she told the JC: “It was different to Crohn’s symptoms. I was breathless and I kept getting urine infections, which weren’t very nice.”
Recent tests have shown that both Caplan’s kidneys are severely damaged and are not working as they should.
Having had 30 operations for Crohn’s since childhood, including a permanent ileostomy, Caplan is not deemed medically strong enough to accept a deceased kidney transplant.
Caplan says her Crohn’s is “horrendous” at the moment, and she is also suffering from other related conditions, including inflammatory arthritis and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which affects the connective tissue.
She says: “Combining that with trying to live a normal life and trying to look after your family and trying to be brave is tough. To be honest,
I’ve been in denial these last few years because you just carry on. I haven’t been able to work since I got engaged nearly 29 years ago, so I look after my family and try and get up every day and that’s it.
“Now my symptoms have greatly increased. I wake up every morning with swollen hands and legs due to fluid retention. This and the constant urine infections are difficult as both are so painful, as well as suffering with
Crohn’s disease. The results of recent blood tests were really bad.”
Caplan’s doctor has told her that she needs a new kidney now. “My consultant doesn’t want me to wait years. He wants to nip it in the bud while I’m still strong enough.”
The next step is finding a match. Unfortunately, her family members are either unable to donate because of health issues — her mother has cancer — or because they are not a match. “My mother is desperate to donate, but she can’t. I want to live to see my children get married and to have and to hold my grandchildren. That is my dream.”
Trying to live a normal life and be brave is tough