A woman in the need of a kidney has been receiving overwhelming support after her husband was snapped having a note attached to his bag. CNN reporter Lilit Marcus who clicked the man tweeted the picture moving hearts online. The note read: 'In need of a kidney for my wife, B+. 917-442-6202'. Lilit posted the picture with the caption: 'Here is a photo I took at my Target yesterday and can't stop thinking about.'
Raymond Thompson, who lives in Brooklyn with his wife Mylen and their 4-year old daughter, doesn't even have a Twitter account. The couple had met each other through an AOL chatroom in 2000. As Lilit's tweet went viral, Raymond's phone was inundated with calls from unknown people. He received calls from everywhere including Pakistan and Australia. Woman Saves Colleague Suffering From Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) By Donating Her Kidney.
When Lilit called Raymond, he recognised her as people had sent him screenshots of her tweet. The man told her that she was diagnosed with kidney disease two years ago. Mylen has to go through dialysis for three hours, three days a week. The family has however decided not to set up a GoFundMe page as they are covered for medical expenses and a kidney is all they need. World Kidney Day 2018: Tips to Care for Your Kidney after Transplantation.
Here is the tweet that has gone viral:
Here is a photo I took at my Target yesterday and can't stop thinking about. pic.twitter.com/gbzF47AqCy
— Lilit Marcus (@lilitmarcus) December 22, 2018
As the tweet was widely shared on social networking sites, Twitter users began to share photos of similar call for help they spotted in public places. Many celebrities including Patti Murin, Zack Braff and Evan Rachel Wood also spread the word on social media.
Finding a kidney donor is not quite easy and people at times wait for years together to find the right match. There are national and international organ waiting lists which work with government agencies and hospital to write down names of patients looking out for suitable kidneys depending on the urgency or the condition of the health. According to the United Network of Organ Sharing, out of the nearly 100,000 people who are in the waiting list for a kidney, only 20 percent were able to find a match.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 07, 2019 01:25 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).