This couple is hoping their love story will inspire you to become an organ donor
In November, the couple will be celebrating 1 year since Doerksen received a new kidney
Emma Smith is a perfect match for Ben Doerksen — in more ways than one.
The Elora, Ont. couple first met at a Halloween party in 2021 and began dating soon after that.
By then, Doerksen had already been receiving dialysis treatment for about three months after suddenly being diagnosed with kidney failure in Spring 2021.
"I was hunkering in for what I would assume was going to be a fairly long wait for any sort of donor opportunity," he said
"I spent most of that year wrapping my head around the very sudden and spontaneous life change."
When they first began dating in November 2021, Smith said she did not completely understand what Doerksen was going through, but she began to see firsthand how it affected his day-to-day life.
That's when she decided she wanted to help by donating a kidney.
"There was just something in my soul and my heart that said: 'Why not?'" she said.
"There was this pull toward him and I just wanted to see him get better."
Doerksen said it felt surreal when he heard he'll be getting a new kidney from his life partner.
"For it to be somebody who I had met so recently and who was so sure of this decision, it was, and still is, even post-transplant, hard to wrap my head around that this person was willing to do this for me and truly change my life forever."
'We're twin flames'
Smith said they've only grown closer since the surgery.
"I say we're twin flames, we're two peas in a pod," she said.
"To recover with one another too is such a beautiful thing, knowing that he was going to get better through this."
She said the risk of the surgery felt minimal to her as the donor.
"The surgeons and the doctors were really great with informing me," she said.
"I think the biggest fear or risk for anybody is getting that complete head-to-toe health screening. So if there was any pre-existing complications or diseases, for example, that I might have that I didn't know about, I would find out about it then ... for some people, that could be daunting for them, but the actual risk in surgery is quite minimal for how invasive and intensive the surgery is."
That was almost a year ago.
The couple will be celebrating one year since Doerksen received a new kidney on November 16, 2023.
Smith is hoping their story will inspire more people to become donors.
"There are just heaps of people out there in need of organ donation," Smith said.
"I didn't know much about it at all until I met Ben and I was just amazed at how many people since then come up to me and said your story was so empowering because I also struggle with kidney failure, or my parents died of kidney failure, or are on dialysis right now, searching for a donor."
Doerksen said without Smith's kidney donation, he would still be going through dialysis treatment multiple times a day, waiting for four to seven years for a kidney donation.
"I was in the process of adapting my life, living arrangements, my job, so many parts of my life to accommodate this new situation that I found myself in."
WATCH | Science says live organ donors may be wired to help
Kidney from living donor lasts longer
According to the Kidney Foundation of Canada, one of the advantages of living kidney donors is that the kidney often lasts longer after being transplanted.
"This is partly because time can be taken to do the necessary tests to get a better tissue match between donor and recipient," the foundation says on its website.
"A better tissue match means higher compatibility and less risk of organ rejection."
The foundation says a kidney transplant from a live donor can last 15 to 20 years on average — compared to 10 to 15 years for a donation from a deceased donor.
The couple is now hoping to raise at least $2,000 by taking part in the 2023 Kidney Walk by The Kidney Foundation of Canada in October.
Potential risks for live donors
Researchers at the University of Minnesota found in a 2009 study those who gave up one of their two kidneys lived a normal life span and were as healthy as people in the general population.
The donation also didn't raise the risk of having kidney failure later.
The research of nearly 3,700 donors dates back to more than four decades.
Dr. Hassan Ibrahim, the study's leader, and his colleagues wanted to find out what happened to the 3,698 people who had donated a kidney at the university since 1963. They tried to contact everyone and used government records to find out who had died.
A group of 255 donors was randomly selected to have kidney and other tests. Results were compared with health outcomes for the general population.
Overall, 268 of the donors had died, which the researchers said was comparable to survival in the general population.
Eleven donors developed kidney failure decades later and needed dialysis or a transplant. The researchers said the rate of kidney failure in the donors was lower than that reported in the general population.
Most of the donors tested had good kidney function and reported an excellent quality of life, the study found.
The good outcomes likely reflect the strict criteria used to pick the donors, the researchers said. The donors had to be healthy, with no kidney problems, and be free of high blood pressure and diabetes — two main causes of kidney disease.
LISTEN| Emma and Ben share their story on CBC Radio
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With files from the Associated Press