Catherine Billings

Cathy, age 50, is a fun-loving woman who loves the outdoors, gardening, and snow skiing, biking, and playing with her dogs, Boogie & Norman Jean and her 2 cats, Romeo & Juliet. Today, we are celebrating — Cathy received a successful kidney transplant at UC Davis Medical Center on June 13. 2011. She was the recipient of two pediatric kidneys! It is truly a miracle that Cathy survived even this long; she was born with a renal tubular acidosis type 1 and was a very sick infant and toddler. During her teen years, her medical complications leveled off and she continued to improve and she was very athletic — having kidney disease never slowed her down. Over the years, Cathy battled chronic kidney infections and her kidneys developed stones (as the doctor put it “enough stones to pave his driveway”) and had multiple procedures to remove them. A procedure this past winter resulted in septic shock, and Cathy was hospitalized for six days. As her condition worsened and she was faced with life-threatening infections, the doctors had no choice but to remove a kidney. The procedure went well, however, shortly afterwards she experienced major complications and again went into septic shock. It was then determined that her second kidney would have to be removed and that she would need a kidney transplant. Cathy was then dependent on dialysis treatment for six months as she awaited a transplant. Even with insurance, Cathy will face many uninsured transplant-related expenses such as: co-pays and deductibles, doctor visits, travel to and from the hospital and the costly immunosuppressant medications that she will need to take for the rest of her life.This presents a financial challenge Cathy cannot meet alone. To help offset Cathy’s uninsured costs, a fundraising campaign in her honor has been established with Help Hope Live. Help Hope Live is a nonprofit organization that has been assisting the transplant community for nearly 30 years. All contributions are tax-deductible and are administered by Help Hope Live for transplant-related expenses only.

You can help make a difference in Cathy’s life. Please consider making a contribution. For credit card contributions call 800-642-8399 or select the DONATE NOW button. Thank you for any help you can give.