Sigel, Pa. (EYT) – A sister’s love for her brother is never-ending.
And, never-ending has been the case for Luke McCool, of Sigel, and Danielle McCullough, of Clarion.
Danielle’s love is so strong that she has agreed to donate a kidney to Luke, who has IGA Nephropathy – also known as Berger’s Disease.
“It is a progressive auto-immune disease which ultimately results in kidney failure,” McCullough said. “Normally, this can take years to progress, but Luke’s was very aggressive. He currently has end-stage renal disease and is on dialysis and waiting for a kidney transplant.”
McCullough, who at 36 years old, is the oldest of four siblings and is four years older than the 32-year old McCool, said the idea to donate one of her kidneys to her brother was an easy one.
“As soon as our mom said he would need a kidney transplant, I knew I had to be tested,” McCullough said.
According to McCullough, the wait to find out if she was a match was the hardest part. She had blood work done around March 2019 but didn’t know until six weeks later that she was a match.
“The worst part was not knowing and waiting for a call,” McCullough said. “I finally received a call about six weeks later that Luke and I were a perfect match.”
After finding out she was a match, McCullough then had to go to the Cleveland Clinic for extensive testing to be sure she was healthy enough to donate and to test her kidney function.
“Again, the wait was nerve-racking,” McCullough said. “I did some extra testing that needed to be done, but I was finally cleared for surgery in August. Now we are waiting for our team at Cleveland Clinic to coordinate everything and give us the date (for the surgery).”
While the family awaits a date, they are busy trying to raise funds to cover some of the costs associated with Luke’s disease and the surgery.
On Sunday, September 29, a ham dinner will be held at the Corsica Volunteer Fire Department from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. or until sold out. The dinner will include scalloped potatoes, vegetables, rolls, and dessert. For more information on the dinner, call Erin Byerly at 814-648-8485.
The family has also set up a GoFundMe page at https://www.gofundme.com/f/luke039s-kidney-transplant.
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