Business owner helping friend find kidney donor

SPRING LAKE, Mich. (WOOD) — According to Donate Life America, there are more than 100,000 people are on the national transplant waiting list. More than 85% of those people are waiting for a kidney.

On the lakeshore, the owner of a local business is doing what he can to spread the word about the need and find a new kidney for his friend and colleague.

You may have noticed the sign while heading to the beach. If you live in Spring Lake, you’ve seen the sign outside Eastown Auto Repair and Tire.

“I said to Judy, ‘You’re going to hate me in the short run, but if we’re successful the end result will be worth it,'” Adam Beck, owner of Eastown Auto Repair and Tire, said.

Beck has taken it upon himself to help out his office manager, Judy Sibillia. They’re searching for someone who would be willing to give the ultimate gift — the gift of life .

“I just felt like there had to be more we could do to try to bring attention to the need for living donors and specifically for Judy, our friend,” Beck said.

The sign reads, “Kidney donor needed.” It’s been there outside the business on Cleveland Street in Spring Lake for several weeks. The sign urges anyone who drives by to consider whether they could be a living donor . Are you the match Judy’s been waiting for?

“I think that my faith has lead me to believe that God has a bigger plan in store, and part of that is me being patient and humble and waiting,” Sibilla said.

She was diagnosed with a genetic disorder called polycystic kidney disease in 2012. About three and a half years ago, her kidney function got so bad that she had to go on dialysis.

She’s able to do her dialysis at home through a process called peritoneal dialysis.

“It’s eight hours and 40 minutes from start to finish. Once that’s done, and I get up in the morning, four hours after that time, I have a final process that I have to do. It’s a good 13 and a half, almost 14 hours of my day,” Sibilla said.

Fourteen hours a day. Fourteen hours that Sibilla isn’t able to work, play with her grandkids or do the things she and her husband, Bill, used to love to do.

“Some days are better than others, and it’s very unpredictable when that’s going to be. So making plans for anything that involves some distance is always a challenge,” Bill Sibilla said.

The couple say they miss traveling and riding their recumbent tandem bike. They have a daughter and grandchild in England. It’s a trip they just can’t make due to the dialysis.

“Every day is about it. Everything I do, I think about, ‘OK, I have to go to bed at a certain time if I’m going to try and fit something in in the morning’ and then again, I can only go so far,” she said.

Several people have offered to donate a kidney to Judy Sibilla . No matches yet. One of her daughter’s friends has been approved to be an in-kind donor. When Sibilla does find a match, that friend will be giving her kidney to another person in need. Until then, Judy, Bill, and her colleagues at Eastown Auto Repair and Tire wait.

“Even if my match isn’t found through this. I hope it is obviously, but more than anything, the awareness that this is a really big need for a lot of people,” she said.

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