Spreading stickers for a solution: Woman using decals to find a kidney donor
By Donna Pitman
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OVERLAND PARK, Kansas (KMBC) — What do you do when you’re in need?
Ask for what you need.
For Amanda Schmidt of Overland Park, that request is being made in a creative way.
“I was playing around with an AI website, and had it make me a decal, and it just popped out. It’s really cute…So I had them made, and just slapped on the back of my car.”
And more than seventy other cars after that.
The decals carry Schmidt’s ask: “I need a Kidney.”
Schmidt is looking for a living donor, and one with a rare blood type: O+ or O-.
She has PKD, or Polycystic Kidney Disease. It’s a genetic condition that causes cysts to grow on her kidneys that will, over time, lead to kidney failure.
Schmidt says each of her kidneys weighs around eight pounds, the same as a full gallon jug each. They’re compressing her organs and her lungs, and they’ll need to be removed soon. That removal is complicated by the need for a living donor with a specific blood type.
“It is more of a rare blood type, rare in the sense that you can only receive a positive or negative, so the way the wait list for that is longer than other, the other blood types.”
Despite the longer wait, Schmidt holds hope that these decals will help get the word out and maybe connect her to the person who will save her life.
“My hope has been renewed.”
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