It’s our turn to take care of Lena in her time of desperate need. “For the Love of Lena!” Let’s find her a Kidney!

My sister Lena is my eldest sibling, I was born when she was nine years old. I remember her always helping me as a child, keeping me safe and helping me navigate the world while I learned and grew. She loves to travel and was a Travel Agent for over 20 years. Some of my fondest memories are of her taking me on trips (just her and me). We went to Florida and she took me to all the theme parks, we went to Atlanta and she took me to see the Coca-Cola factory! We had lots of fun on those trips and I didn’t realize how much of a big deal it was for her to bring me on these trips on her own. I mean, what 20 something sister would want to take her annoying, pre-teen brother on a trip just purely so he can have fun and have life changing experiences.

Having kidney failure has affected her day to day life because she has to do dialysis 3 times per week for 4 hours each time, which makes it impossible for her to work, even part-time. When she isn’t stuck in the dialysis chair, she is too weak to do many of the things that she used to do including driving her kids to activities, helping at her family’s bakery and keeping up with her puppy. Of course, the kidney failure has also affected her ability to travel, which also impedes her ability to bring her own children on trips so they can have these life experiences.

Receiving a kidney from a live donor would mean EVERYTHING to Lena. It means she can travel again, be more active in her children’s lives and hopefully get back to working. It seems crazy to think that someone would want to get back to work, but for Lena not being able to work is frustrating because she’s always been a hard worker.
Even more important is the ability to provide for her family. She hasn’t been able to work in almost 2 years and she has not gotten approved for disability! So their household only has one income coming in from her husband and thank God he has that job or they would have no income at all. She is also grateful that her husband (Mat) has health insurance! It’s not a great plan and doesn’t cover much for them but it’s better than if they had no insurance and had to pay out of pocket for all of her care.

We are working to get the word out for Lena. We are creating a Facebook page called “For the Love of Lena” to put her name out on social media. Lena hates this and really does not want to advertise that she needs a kidney donation to survive! She especiallly doesn’t want people to think her family is struggling financially, but at this point 2 years into waiting, we need to take action on her behalf. We will also start a fund for Lena, with the same name “For the Love of Lena.” This is meant to help her family cope with the financial hardship that kidney failure has created for her family.
Any and all help is very much appreciated by her family and friends. We all will help her, whether she wants us to or not. Lena is used to taking care of others and going out of her way to make others lives better. Now it is our turn to help her when she desperately needs it.
If you are interested in donating please checkout our Facebook page “For the Love of Lena”
Or donate to her gofundme

https://gofund.me/6c0ac21c

If you would be willing to get tested to see if you can donate a kidney to Lena please call the Yale Transplant Center at 1-866-925-3897 and mention that you are calling for Lena Sorensen