MILWAUKEE — Saryea Murchison was 23 years old when doctors told her one of her kidneys had shriveled up and she would need dialysis.
She went the next six years on a three-day-a-week regiment of dialysis and a never-ending prayer for a new kidney.
Murchison's prayers came true in 2010 when she received the gift of life. She got a kidney.
Health officials say the life of a transplant can be anywhere from 10 to 15 years. Now, 13 years later, Saryea Murchison's kidney function is challenged, requiring her to go back on the donor list in need of her second kidney transplant.
She says she is prayerful and optimistic. Health officials tell her she's high on the list. Every time her phone rings she's hoping it's the news she's been praying for.
Stories like Saryea's have touched Natasha Coe deeply.
Coe learned of a friend who had lost a loved one waiting for a kidney, and she began researching how she could not only help but actually donate one of her kidneys.
After much research and a rigorous screening by a medical team, Coe made her intentions known on her social media channel.
Watch: Increasing kidney disease awareness during Minority Donor Awareness Month
"I just asked if anybody knows someone who needs a kidney," said Coe. The response came from someone she wasn't particularly close with, whose stepmother needed a kidney transplant for the second time.
Coe says there is so much misinformation out there especially relating to kidney disease and the relationship between health problems and the eventual need for a transplant.
Medical Director of Kidney and Transplantation, Dr. Beje Thomas, says overall in our country about 100,000 people are on the kidney waiting list and roughly 25,000 only get transplanted.
He adds more than sixty percent of people on organ waiting lists are from racially and ethnically diverse populations. On average, 20 people die every day waiting for a transplant.
The National Kidney Foundation of Wisconsin is working to increase awareness and bridge the gap between the demand for organ transplants and the supply of donated organs.
The need for donation and transplant is more pronounced in minority communities where disproportionately higher rates of diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease contribute to organ failure, especially kidney failure.
African Americans are almost four times more likely than White Americans to have kidney failure. Latinos are 1.3 times more likely than non-Latinos to have kidney disease.
During National Minority Donor Awareness Month, national organ donation organizations will highlight the need for more organ, eye, and tissue donors within multicultural communities. provide donation education, encourage donor registration, and promote healthy living.
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