Chris Sim needs another kidney.
The 36-year-old Petrolia resident has taken a leave from his job in the City of Sarnia's public works department as he starts dialysis treatments again.
His common law partner, who also works for the city as an accounting specialist, is making a public appeal for possible donors to come forward.
Katie Ackwood said she met Sim about four years ago, instantly knew he was her soul mate, and wants to ensure they share a long life together.
"He has a very rare hereditary kidney disease and it came up as a kid," said Ackwood. "He has hearing loss and vision loss from it, so he wears hearing aids and things like that. His kidney failed for the first time when he was 27 and luckily he found a donor that time around."
Ackwood said she was tested, but was not a match.
"With me being a B+ I can't donate to him, so I thought what better way for me to help as best as I can, than to advocate for him and put his name out there, and get the word out. There's a lot of people out there that I know are willing to donate."
Sim's blood type is O.
"I am in the exchange program, which is where I can donate to somebody who is B+, if they have somebody that would donate to Chris, but that can take years, and right now, he went for his first surgery to put the port in for dialysis," Ackwood said. "So, I thought maybe spreading the word might get a kidney faster so he's not on dialysis for so long."
She said Sim is now using Lambton Elderly Outreach to travel to University Hospital in London three times a week for treatment.
"He gets hooked up to a machine and it filters his blood and acts as his kidney, and he's on that machine for about four hours for those three days a week," she said. "He is in the process of going through home hemodialysis, where he would get trained to do it at home and the machine would be set up in our home, but that takes time."
Ackwood encourages anyone interested in seeing if they are a match to contact the Kidney Foundation in London.
"They would just have to call and say that they want to get tested to see if they're a match for Chris and they will set up a questionnaire to see how that person's health is and if they are eligible. If they pass, they would start off with some bloodwork to see if they are a match of blood type, but also with donation, you also have to match antibodies."
Inquiries can also be made through the London Health Sciences Centre's Multi-Organ Transplant Program.
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