Submitted by: Dollana Tyeku
On 24 September 2018, I was blessed with a kidney.
How many of you are registered as organ donors? Are you a blood donor? The kindness of a stranger gave me a second chance in life.
My mission in life is to spread awareness, especially with my black brothers and sisters.
#ImStaying because it is my mission to change and educate people about organ donation.
We interviewed Dollana on 12 October:
Sally: How will you educate people?
Dollana: I want to start an NGO in the Eastern Cape raising awareness by giving talks in schools and at companies on wellness days. Most people have never met anyone who has had a successful transplant or even a transplant at all. I hope that by them seeing someone, and hearing my story, they will come to believe and understand that a transplant can help someone else live longer.
Sally: Do you believe there is less awareness about organ donation in the black community?
Dollana: My mom was a nurse since 1976 and she has never come across anyone with a transplanted organ and she only knows the practical side of dialysis. I have heard many people say the same thing.
Sally: What would you encourage people to do?
Dollana: I would encourage people to register as organ donors and talk to family members about their wishes to become organ donors. I would also encourage them to take care of their kidneys.
Sally: What is your occupation? And what has the new kidney allowed you to do that you would otherwise not have been able to do?
Dollana: I am not employed, but I am a distributor for a company that sells high-quality perfumed products. Being on dialysis for three days in a week and spending twelve hours on dialysis a week was not an easy thing. You spend the days in between dialysis recovering from the last session, then you go back and have to do it again the next day.
It was enough hard to enjoy the simple things like going for a walk with my kids. I stopped driving due to low blood pressure and blackouts. Since dialysis I have been able to be more involved in my kids’ daily life, I don’t spend days or hours in bed struggling to get up. My kids do not worry about me going into hospital and not knowing whether I will come back or die in hospital. It affected them a lot not having me home or even when I was home, I was not able to do much. Dialysis also affects your memory and you get depressed as well. There are times I would not know what day it is.
Dollana Tyeku
I strongly believe that if people are educated about organ donation, we will definitely see more people donating organs and receiving transplants.
The government does not invest money in organ donation like they do with HIV. The Organ Donor Foundation relies on donations so they cannot do much or reach many people, especially in the Eastern Cape. I am one of their volunteers, so I used to help at some of their events as they rely on volunteers. People are scared to donate as they do not have enough information on organ donation and cultural beliefs. I am originally from the Eastern Cape. I do speak to people and I have since realized that the education and awareness are not enough – in fact, it is non-existent. I strongly believe that if people are educated about organ donation, we will definitely see more people donating organs and receiving transplants. Unfortunately, some people hide from the community once they are diagnosed with kidney disease.
In some countries, everyone is automatically a donor unless you opt-out. America does a lot of transplants compared to SA.
The waiting period for a kidney is about ten years, so if you don’t get lucky you will run out of time.
I feel that if we rely on the government to change things, then we might wait forever, and people will just die. The rate of people suffering from kidney failure has increased drastically. People with HIV, some end up on dialysis, diabetic people also end up on dialysis. You also get kids born with kidney diseases at Red Cross as young as two years old on dialysis. The elderly end up on dialysis due to aging. The waiting period for a kidney is about ten years, so if you don’t get lucky you will run out of time.
Thanks very much for giving me this opportunity, if you have any ideas of how I can start my NGO, please share some ideas. I would appreciate it. I am really passionate about this and a friend told me that I need to get out there and get the media involved so that I can get more people on board, especially in raising funds for all the traveling and laying the groundwork.
God knows my heart is in the right place and I can see things are starting to happen.
