Danielle is only 22 years old, but she has spent over half of her life battling multiple health conditions. Danielle first came to the NIH with severe aplastic anemia in 2007. Although she won her battle with aplastic anemia, Danielle’s kidneys completely failed in 2017. She has been on dialysis ever since, meaning she has been at the NIH for over two years straight.
Danielle is here from Jamaica and has spent most of her time at the NIH on her own. Her mom is able to come visit her occasionally, but Danielle says she hasn’t seen her dad in almost three years. The last time she saw her siblings was in the summer of 2019.
Danielle’s parents have their own medical complications making them unable to give her a kidney. Danielle’s siblings are too young to be donors. So, Danielle has taken matters into her own hands to find a donor. She created a Facebook page called Kidney4dani in the hopes that this will help her find a match.
“The typical wait for a person with my blood type is five to seven years, and I really don’t want to wait that long,” Danielle says. “Dialysis itself is very hard, hard on the body.”
“They help me to have fun and just be young again” – Danielle
For over two years, Friends at NIH’s ANA’s Impact fund has supported Danielle by providing her with the opportunity to go on social outings every month. ANA’s Impact was created in memory of Ana Longenderfer Dougherty, who completed two clinical trials at the NIH before her passing in 2015. Ana truly understood the importance of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) clinical trials and hoped that more people could experience the NIH and its healing mission in the future.
The fund provides NIH patients with social and emotional support during their time at the NIH. Phase I of the fund provides patients with opportunities for creativity while in isolation.Phase II provides patients with gift cards to go on social outings.
Once Danielle is able to go out again after social isolation, she says she’s excited to go to the mall and treat herself to some comfort food. She hopes that once she receives her kidney she is able to go to school and have a career someday.
Danielle thanks Friends at NIH’s donors for providing her with the opportunity to go on monthly outings because they help her to take her mind off of her treatment.
“I look forward to those gift cards because they help me to go out, and they help me to have fun and just be young again,” Danielle says.
Patients like Danielle are counting on you. Please, consider donating today. To learn more about ANA’s Impact, follow this link: http://anasimpact.com
Your donation, no matter what size, helps.
