ROCHELLE — A Rochelle woman dealing with kidney failure that has been on dialysis for 4.5 years and her family are working to raise awareness of kidney disease and organ donation. 

Peggy Futrell, 82, has lived in Rochelle since the early 1960s. She’s been dealing with a hereditary kidney disease for 11 years, her daughter, Cherie Hayes said. The disease progressed to the point of failure of both of her kidneys. She was on home dialysis for two years and has been on hemodialysis for 2.5 years. 

Futrell is a candidate for a kidney donation, but due to her age she can’t be put on a deceased donor list. The surgery can be performed if a living donor is found or someone who stated in their will that she can have their kidney passes away, Hayes said. 

“It's an emotional turmoil,” Hayes said. “First you wonder, 'Why her?' She took care of herself and exercised and ate healthy. She didn't have any other disease you can think of. She didn't do this to herself to cause her kidneys to fail. Her problems come from an autoimmune disease that is very hereditary. We have several people in the family with it, so a family donation is not an option.”

Futrell travels to DeKalb three days a week for dialysis, which takes four hours. Her husband, also in his 80s, drives her both ways and makes two round trips due to not being able to stay while the treatment takes place.

Futrell and her family want the public to know more about organ donation and the toll that kidney disease takes.

“There are more people out there in need of live donors than you realize,” Hayes said. “We really wish Rochelle had a dialysis center. A lot of people from the area travel to DeKalb and Dixon for it. When people on dialysis get the flu or get sick, they still have to get themselves up and go do it. They have no choice.”

On Aug. 5, Hayes took to Facebook to spread the word about her mother’s condition, and details about kidney disease and organ donation. She asked people to consider putting a specific person that they’d like to donate an organ to in a living will. 

“We hope for a living donor,” Hayes said. “After my Facebook post I've had three people reach out with an offer. That brought tears to our eyes. And that was just in two days. Everyone on dialysis hopes for a living donor, and we are too. There's only about 5,000 living kidney donations a year in the United States.”

Those interested in learning more or being a potential donor can reach out to Cherie Hayes on Facebook or contact a dialysis center social worker. 

People who want to donate a kidney to someone but find a blood type barrier can be paired up in programs to still see the person they desire to donate to get a kidney. Medicare pays for surgery and tests for kidney donations, and other resources are available to donors for expenses such as travel, hotels, meals and time off work. 

“My mother is so giving and kind,” Hayes said. “The support we’ve seen has been overwhelming. I can't describe it. I'm in shock. The whole ordeal has brought our family closer together dealing with it, and we were pretty tight to begin with.”