Kay Gilbert

When my life partner told me that he had PKD, I said he could have one of my kidneys. He had no family history of PKD, and neither of us knew anything about it, so the first thing we did was get involved with the PKD Foundation.
Many years passed before he was ready for a transplant, and he was on dialysis part of that time. We got a house, got engaged, and, finally, I was able to donate my kidney to him 10 years ago. A few months later we got married. There have been challenges and adjustments—it's been years since I've been in public without a mask to protect him—but the kidney is doing well. In hindsight, I’m so grateful that we were able to do the transplant and get him off dialysis before Covid hit.
When my husband first found out that he had PKD, his mother found the Foundation and told him about it, and he went to a conference (PKDCON). It was a great learning experience for him, and we went to the conference every year after that. We also took advantage of our local support group, which was a great way to learn from other patients at different stages of the disease.
We’ve remained active with the Foundation, supporting its conferences and lobbying Congress for research funding. We are grateful for everything we learned from the Foundation.