GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Lori Weyers is on the hunt for her perfect match, at least when it comes to her kidney, and she’s using her printing skills to catch the attention of potential donors.
On the corner of Division Avenue and Rosemary Street in Grand Rapids stands Quick Printing Company. Inside of the little print shop, you can often find Weyers printing signs. About a year ago she enlisted the help of one of her customers to design a sign with three special words: Kidney Donor Needed.
"I guess it was just owning a print shop ... the first thing I thought of is getting the word out," Weyers explains when asked why she decided to post the sign on her front lawn.
Her journey began five years ago when Weyers stepped into a life-changing doctor's appointment.
"At one of my physicals my doctor said, 'I don't like your kidney numbers,' and I went to see a kidney doctor and was told I have stage 3 kidney disease," Weyers says.
Four years later, her kidney doctor informed her the disease was progressing quickly.
"All of a sudden I got a call from my kidney doctor saying, 'Are you feeling okay?' And I'm like, well, yeah, and they're like, well your numbers have crashed. You need dialysis right now," says Weyers.
She has been on dialysis ever since, all while searching for a donor.
The wait in Michigan for a kidney can take five to seven years, and since Weyers’ blood type is O Negative, that wait can be even longer.
"I can only take an O kidney, and then your antibodies have to match," Weyers says. "Because I had a blood transfusion a little over a year ago, my antibodies are kind of mixed up. So that makes it even harder."
The sign has been up for more than a year, and she has received a lot of calls but she's still in search of that perfect match, the one person who could help save her life.
"They'd be giving me life," she says. "I have a new grandchild on the way, and I have a couple of other grandchildren, and I want to be here to see them graduate, get married. So, it would mean the world to me."
"I want to live. I mean, I love life, I enjoy my family, and I want to be here for them."
And she's looking for a living donor. So if you'd like to help, you can contact her at 616-685-6899 and find out more about Lori Weyers and her journey on her Facebook page. You can also donate to her fundraiser, which will benefit her future donor, by clicking here.
