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Former Red Deer resident steps forward to donate an organ

Tina Lumbis always believed someone she knew would become her living kidney donor. It turned out to be family friend, Julie Evaskevich, of Kelowna, B.C., and the transplant is scheduled for September in Calgary.
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Tina Lumbis

Tina Lumbis always believed someone she knew would become her living kidney donor.

It turned out to be family friend, Julie Evaskevich, of Kelowna, B.C., and the transplant is scheduled for September in Calgary.

Lumbis, 27, of Red Deer, was diagnosed with the rare blood vessel disease, Wegener’s granulomatosis, that caused her kidneys to start failing at 15.

She’s receives dialysis three times a week and was on the organ transplant list.

“You pretty much sit and wait and be ready to get that phone call,” Lumbis said on Monday.

She said a few friends and her sister got tested but weren’t a match.

Diane Panton Kashuba, communications manager Kidney Foundation of Canada, Southern Alberta, said a total of 4,500 people are on the organ transplant list in Canada, including 500 Albertans, and nearly 80 per cent were waiting for a kidney.

In 2010, there were 140 kidney transplants in Alberta.

“One of the great things is that our living donor rates for kidney transplant are making about 40 per cent of kidney transplants possible,” Kashuba said.

“We also find that more and more people are even coming forward and doing a non-directed, or anonymous donation, and that’s very important too.”

Evaskevich, 52, who lived in Red Deer with her young family when Lumbis was diagnosed, said she wasn’t in the position to donate a kidney earlier.

“But there was no question that I would have because my sister actually had a transplant very successfully,” Evaskevich said.

Her brother donated a kidney to their sister over 15 years ago.

“It makes me very grateful for medical science and everything we are able to do to keep people alive.”

Without dialysis or a transplant, kidney disease is fatal.

In 2010, Statistics Canada listed kidney disease as the eighth leading cause of death for Canadians.

On an average day, 16 Canadians are told that their kidneys have failed and in the next decade, the number of people affected by kidney disease is expected to double.

Evaskevich said her challenge will be during recuperation and unable to work in her small restaurant, North End Cafe, in Kelowna, that she runs herself.

She had the opportunity to buy the cafe last year after donor testing had already begun.

She said her fiancé plans to pitch in and she is fundraising to pay staff and is looking for volunteers.

After an article on her upcoming transplant surgery appeared in the Kelowna Capital News, Evaskevich said offers have started coming her way.

“I’ve had people come in and volunteer their time at my cafe. Just walk in the door and say, ‘Hey I can help you.’”

People have also been telling her about their transplant stories, Evaskevich said.

For information on kidney disease and organ donation visit www.kidney.ca.

szielinski@www.reddeeradvocate.com