Beverly Family Asks For Help Finding Kelly A Kidney

BEVERLY, MA — Kelly Raymond says she is incredibly thankful for the way her friends and the Beverly and Danvers communities have supported her in the past as she's battled Type 1 diabetes and recovered from a leg amputation from eight years ago.

Now she has an even greater ask for help that she said she and her family would never make if not for the urgency and importance.

She needs a kidney and is looking for a match.

"We basically are reaching out because I am on a waitlist Mass. General Hospital that is really long," she told Patch. "We are trying to find a live donor. When you get a kidney from a deceased donor it doesn't last as long. So I am better off with a live donor if I can find one.

"We are reaching out any way that we can. My husband has been a huge supporter in finding a donor for me."

Her husband, David, is a Hamilton firefighter who works for Cataldo Ambulance and who helped create the Find Kelly A Kidney website to help identify a living donor. Because of her blood type – O positive – the waitlist for a donor through Mass. General could run five to six years.

Potential donors can go here as the first step in registration, and from there can contact the Raymonds through the website for additional information needed.

Raymond is currently on dialysis as she "waits for a miracle."

She said her insurance will pay for all the ensuing testing and any cost that goes along with the kidney donation. There is also a program where if a donor is not a match for her, a "swap" can be arranged where the donor gives their kidney to someone else, while someone associated with that recipient who is a match for Raymond can donate to her.

The recovery time from a kidney donation is typically about three weeks.

Still, she realizes this is a mighty request.

"Please know that I wouldn't ask this if I wasn't in desperate need," she said. "I am reaching out to all my friends and family, and even people I have never met.

"This is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life."

The plea comes after she spent the better part of the past year isolated due to the coronavirus health crisis. As someone severely immunocompromised, she and her family had to be very careful during the height of the pandemic before she was able to get a vaccination.

"Being a person who needed a kidney it was scary," she said. "We didn't go anywhere."

Yet, as much of the rest of the state starts to look forward to the end of the restrictions toward a brighter future, Raymond is still faced with the reality that "my kidneys are shutting down."

Eight years ago, a friend who worked with her at Danvers Savings Bank organized a fundraiser aimed at collecting $1,000 to help with the amputation costs.

It wound up raising $17,000.

Similar success this time around would be priceless.

"We didn't ask for any of this," she said. "It's out of the kindness of people's hearts that they are doing this for us.

"We are very thankful for it."

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)