Betsy James has spent nearly 25 years of her life giving to her students at Alcoa Elementary. Now, she is hoping to receive.
“If I could give her my kidney … I would in a heartbeat," said Betsy's best friend Sandy Stuart.
Over the past 20 years, the woman fondly known just as "Mrs. James" by her students has suffered from Glomerulonephritis. The disease slowly decreases her kidneys' ability to function. During the 2015-2016 school year, she was placed on a transplant list with hopes of matching with a living donor.
Betsy's close friends and family made the call to find out if they were eligible, only to find out none of them were matches. Even coworkers took the test to see if they could help her.
"I put out a letter to the school district and 10 teachers have tried, but none were matches," Stuart said.
Now that Betsy has been on a transplant list for more than a year, each day that passes increases her need for a donor more and more.
Click here to find out if you are eligible to become a kidney donor.
Kidney donations are a tricky process, as the kidneys need to be at least a 95 percent match to be eligible for donation. Donors also need to be in "great" physical and psycho-social health.
“There are 100,000 (people nationwide) waiting on just kidneys, and last year we did about 19,000 transplants. So really, we’re only doing less than 20 percent of people waiting for a life-saving organ," Brent Hannah, Director of Transplant Services at UT Medical Center, said in March.
Hannah said the only way to meet the growing demand for donors is to grow the population of donors.
Back at square one, Stuart hopes to find her best friend a kidney while her health is still in good condition. In the meantime, she donates her time.
“We cook together. I know everything about the keto diet," Stuart said. “Everything I feel that I do for her, she gives me back 100-fold being my best friend.”
The two have taught side-by-side for over 20 years. They eat together, exercise together and even take early days off together when Mrs. James finds herself exhausted from her condition.
“She is a kind, loving, faith-filled person who would do anything for the children in her class, do anything for a friend … and she’s not going to stop doing that," Stuart said. “I pray every day that she will be the one to get the kidney.”