On November 8th Laurie will be getting the gift of a lifetime, a new kidney. For the past three years Laurie has battled with end stage renal failure. When doctors told Laurie that she would not be a viable candidate for the transplant list, due to her many other health complications, Laurie began to be her own advocate. She refused to take no for an answer and started emailing and calling other hospitals for second opinions. Her persistence paid off in a major way when UCSF placed her on their Kidney Transplant list. Even on the list Laurie knew that the chances of her getting a kidney before her time was up, was a long shot. Still Laurie went on being the best wife, mother, and grandmother that she could be. Living her life one day at a time with the hope that her time would come. Many people had come forward and said they would like to donate their spare kidney. Many had went through with the application process but were denied for various reasons. To those people, we thank you! Thank you for trying, that meant more to our family than you could possibly imagine. Then our hero, Brian Burns, came forward and our family spent the next few months silently holding our breath as he slowly passed every step of the process. Brian soon became Laurie's advocate. He spent his summer calling nurses to ask what the next steps were, emailing them when he didn't think they were answering his calls fast enough, and keeping our family updated as soon as he had new information. Brian didn't stop until he got the call we had been praying for; he's a perfect match and on November 8th he will be giving one of his kidneys to Laurie. Now that Laurie's time has come, thanks to this generous gift from Brian, we need to rally around Laurie and show her how loved she is! Right now we want to make sure that Laurie and her husband are well fed and we will update this page as their needs change. Thank you all for your support!