Scott Chafian has been married to his wife Cindy for year 20 years. So what do you get for someone you have been with for that long? How about one of your kidney’s.
On January 24, one day before their 20th anniversary, Scott will go under the knife to give one of his kidneys to Cindy. Since her 20’s his wife has suffered from polycystic kidney disease, a disease that causes cysts to grow in her kidneys.
Over the years his wife has grown more sick, something that has been very difficult for him to watch.
“It’s so hard to take to see your wife that way,” he says. “It’s such a simple decision because you see the person you love so much just brought literally to their knees.”
Six years ago the couple were matched as a donor pair, a rare occurrence for a married couple that shares no lineage.
Cindy wasn’t ready to take one of her husband’s kidneys but ever attempt to slow her diseases progression was merely a stop-gap for her condition. Last year Cindy took a “turn for the worse” and finally decided she was ready to accept her husband’s gift.
“I hit kind of rock bottom and I looked at him and I said, ‘OK, I’m ready,’” Cindy recalls.
The couple learned about the surgery a few days before Christmas and Cindy broke down into tears.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help support the couple, as neither will be able to work while they recover from the surgery.
“He is literally going to give me life,” says Cindy. “What he’s doing for me and what other organ donors can do for other people is to really give them their life back and there’s no words that could express how special that is.”
As a huge supporter of organ donation awareness, we applaud both Cindy and her amazing husband.
