Cindy Chafian is celebrating her 20th wedding anniversary later this month, but instead of receiving the traditional gift of china her husband Scott is giving her his kidney in hopes that it will save her life.
Cindy was in her 20s when she was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease, a hereditary disease that runs in her family. Despite multiple surgeries and being on dialysis for almost two years, her condition has gotten progressively worse as cyst growth threatens to shut down her kidneys.
"It's devastating," Scott told WTKR, "it was just a feeling of helplessness."
Scott offered to donate his kidney to his wife six years ago, but Cindy didn't want to take it from him. But when her health declined last year she realized that she needed to take the opportunity.
"I hit kind of rock bottom, and I looked at him and I said okay, I'm ready," Cindy told WTKR.
The transplant surgery is scheduled for January 24, the day before their 20th anniversary.
"To know that he's kind of giving me that ability is even more of an amazing gift. He powers me in so many ways ... he is literally going to give me life. So it's an amazing gift," Cindy told WTKR.
While her great-grandfather died from polycystic kidney disease many years ago, Cindy's grandfather and mother were able to receive transplants from deceased donors. Her mom — who got her transplant almost two years ago — will be on hand to help Cindy and Scott with their recovery.
Since both Cindy and Scott will be out of work for several months during their recovery, a friend of theirs set up a GoFundMe campaign to help defray the costs.
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