By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — Cathy Talmadge has given back to the community in numerous ways. Now, her community of friends and family is asking for help to save her life.

A Representative Town Meeting member since 2008 and longtime volunteer at Wakeman Town Farm, Earthplace and Friends of Sherwood Island, Talmadge suffers from a rare and dangerous disease that has damaged her kidneys beyond repair. She desperately needs a kidney transplant, and friends have organized a campaign to find someone to donate a kidney to her.

It took about six months for Talmadge to agree to a public campaign for assistance, she said. She didn’t want to burden others and didn’t like to ask. “I resisted initially,” she said. 

Friends, family launch campaign

But when it became clear that she was heading for kidney failure, her close friend Christy Colasurdo gathered a group of Westporters to begin looking for a living kidney donor. 

Among those helping were James Dobin-Smith, a Staples High School junior who volunteered to set up the website, akidneyforcathy.com; Westport artist Miggs Burroughs who designed graphics for the drive; Terri Piekara who headed the social media campaign, and Liz Milwe on outreach.

“I’ve known Cathy for about a decade,” said Colasurdo, who volunteered with her at Wakeman Town Farm. “She had been searching a long time for an answer to a mystery illness that the doctors couldn’t identify. We saw her getting sicker and sicker.” 

Cathy Talmadge is now in stage 4 renal failure, as the result of a rare form of sarcoidosis, an autoimmune disease. “I was very healthy. I never expected this,” she said. 

Lately, she has been experiencing more bad days than good, and with the disease scarring her kidneys, she will have to go on dialysis until a kidney is found. 

Finding kidney donor faces challenging odds

Unfortunately, there are currently 100,000 people waiting for kidney donations, according to the National Kidney Foundation, and those new to the list face as long as a seven-year wait, with COVID making the situation even more dire. No one in Cathy’s family qualified to become a donor. Appalled by those statistics, her friends got to work to find her a kidney by mounting an intense social-media campaign. 

Since humans normally have two healthy kidneys, a living kidney donor will likely continue to have a healthy life after donation surgery and a short recovery period, according to akidneyforcathy.com. The website outlines in detail the steps to becoming a live kidney donor, and includes a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section to answer questions and lay out the procedure for kidney donation. 

Potential donors are tested, and if they aren’t a match for Talmadge, they may become donors for someone else. And another potential donor who fails to match another person, might then become Talmadge’s donor, thus setting up a donation bank. “One person stepping up who isn’t a match for Cathy still saves two lives,” Colasurdo said.

Overwhelming offers of support

The “Kidney for Cathy” campaign been very successful, both women agree. “I’m stunned by the people calling. People from all over. Yale New Haven [hospital] said they had never seen such a response to a social-media campaign,” Talmadge said. “I’m so thankful.”

There are currently a handful of people being tested to become a donor for Talmadge – and they’re all from Westport, Colasurdo noted, which she finds overwhelming.

“What I’ve learned is there are angels out there — people who for altruistic or religious reasons volunteer or just want to give back,” she added.

They also were both amazed at how many Westport residents contacted them to offer help. “They read about Cathy and know what a big community activist she’s been for all these years,” Colasurdo said. “For me, it was very, very heartwarming. It’s gratifying to see that a grassroots community effort like this was so successful. I’m overwhelmed, but not surprised. That’s just the kind of town we live in.”

But even though several people have stepped up, the campaign for Talmadge is not over. Nothing is guaranteed because of the uncertainty until testing is done. Both Talmadge and Colasurdo believe the campaign is shining a light on the need for kidney donors, even if a kidney hasn’t been found yet for Cathy.

Deeply thankful for response

Talmadge was so moved and touched by the response to the call out for Westporters to help, she chokes up talking about it, especially because she doesn’t always know who has volunteered to be a donor for her. “I just want people to know how thankful I am that people have been so supportive,” she said. “I’m so very thankful.”

To learn more about kidney donation, visit the “How to Help” section of akidneyforcathy.com; the akidneyforcathy Facebook or Instagram pages; or call Yale’s Center for Living Organ Donors at 866-925-3897 to have questions answered by a representative.