Indiana grandmother Norma Watson runs billboard advertisement seeking emergency kidney as she undergoes grueling dialysis with time running out.
A grandmother with a rare debilitating condition has advertised to find a kidney donor on a billboard in her Indiana hometown.
Norma Watson, 69, was diagnosed with a genetic disease called Alport Syndrome five years ago which led to the woman undergoing ongoing kidney failure and having to undergo grueling dialysis.
The condition attacks the filtering units in her kidneys and makes it difficult for her body to process waste, toxins and fluids.
Watson is in desperate need of a kidney donor as she claimed she would only have two weeks to live if she came off dialysis.
Told Watson via FOX 59: ‘When you come home you have to lay down you’re so drained. It takes everything out of you.
‘If you stop dialysis, I have about two weeks so it keeps me going’.
Norma Watson in desperate search of a kidney:
Norma Watson’s family came together to raise funds to put up a billboard near the intersection of SR 252 and U.S. 31 in Princes Lakes, a small town near Camp Atterbury where she lives.
Watson has six children and 15 grandchildren. However because the disease is genetic, her family members are not suited to be a match.
The grandmother’s best chance now is to find a live donor and her family have said they are doing everything they can to raise awareness in the hope of finding someone who will give Watson the gift of life.
The billboard has sat along the Johnson County intersection for nearly six months trying to spread word of Norma’s search for a donor.
A number of people have come forward offering their kidneys, but so far none have been a match.
Said daughter Dawna Forward, ‘We know the outcome if she doesn’t get a kidney. People on can only live so long on dialysis.
‘It’s difficult, it’s scary, it’s frightening. You never know how it will turn out.
‘You get calls from people that are interested in being donors and then it just falls through,’ Forward added.
‘It’s a roller coaster, emotionally, for her and for us. But she has stayed optimistic.’
Norma Watson in search of a kidney: ‘I just want that one person to step up’.
The family began their search for a donor over a year ago and the sign, which contains the slogan reading ‘You have two, I only need one…”to live”‘ will come down on Wednesday.
Fundraising has included Watson’s granddaughter, 19, holding a softball tournament – with such efforts having helped lift Norma’s spirits.
‘They keep me going. Keep me fighting. You’ve got to have support behind you or you will give up,’ Watson said.
‘You just hope that you can keep going and the dialysis can keep you going until you can find a donor.’
Her husband Shelby is unwell at the moment and she worries about him should anything happen to her.
Adding, ‘I really hate what this is doing to my husband, my kids and the rest of my family’.
Watson also told Indystar: ‘They worry what’s going to happen to me. What the inevitable is, I mean, I’m going to die eventually from it.
‘I just want that one person to step up and be that hero for me that would save my life.’
‘It’s just — it’s frustrating,’ Watson’s daughter reiterated. ‘It’s disheartening for us, because there’s really not a lot we can do other than just be there for her.’
Anyone interested in being tested as a possible match for Watson can contact her at 317-993-3101 or [email protected] to discuss details about testing.
