Laura Parson’s Kidney Bean Fund

Many of you know Laura Parsons who has worked for Ryan Homes for 17 years in the Washington North division. She is a loyal friend, mom & grandparent who has been on a long and difficult health journey these past few years. I am reaching out in hopes of helping Laura with some medical expenses that she has incurred during this time.

To start off, I wanted to give the back story on Laura’s journey & how she got to where she is today. Believe it or not, Laura survived Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer at the young age 29 with small children. Then in 2019, Laura was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent treatment for that and is thankfully cancer free today. However during this diagnosis, it was discovered that she was in kidney failure and her kidney was only functioning at a scary 17%.

Laura managed this new diagnosis at home for about 3.5 years while her husband Mike got certified to do home hemodialysis to make them both more comfortable. This changed everything she knew about her life doing dialysis from home 3-5 days a week. This wasn’t easy and she experienced multiple complications, including a heart attack in December 2020, which is how many people pass during hemodialysis.

Then a true miracle happened, she found a special person Lee who offered to donate a kidney to Laura. After a two year process of clearing both Laura and Lee, ultimately they were not a match. However, Lee remained in the program to donate on Laura’s behalf and on July 11th, she donated her kidney to another individual at GW Hospital.

Everything changed in the best way for Laura when a call came in on Monday, May 29th at 3:24am that a deceased perfect match had been found! Surgery was scheduled for the next day at 11am. Laura was in the hospital for close to a month and will be on anti-rejection meds for the rest of her life. The person she owes her new life to is a 37 year young man who passed away unexpectedly.

Laura has been in and out of the hospital since her procedure experiencing some complications including the latest battle with covid. However, her kidney (or as she names it her “bean”) is a fighter and has been handling things beautifully. She is navigating this new lease on life and looks forward to getting healthier by the day.

Laura has become a dear friend to me and kidney disease is a something that is close to my heart as my father passed away from it when I was 14. All money donated will be used for medical expenses/gas/hospital expenses not covered by insurance. Thank you for reading Laura’s story.