Malis­sa Lara

Car­men Ab­del­nor spends more than three hours on dial­y­sis, three days per week, and then gets ready for work. It's not some­thing easy to do but she prefers to be ac­tive in­stead of sit­ting at home. Ab­del­nor, 47, was di­ag­nosed with end stage re­nal dis­ease, which means both kid­neys no longer func­tion to re­move waste from the body, nor do they per­form any oth­er func­tions. She has been un­der­go­ing dial­y­sis reg­u­lar­ly for the last five years as with­out it she will die. To make mat­ters worse, the dis­ease has led to oth­er com­pli­ca­tions which can be fa­tal.

Re­nal dis­ease has led to a com­pro­mised im­mune sys­tem, mak­ing Ab­del­nor more sus­cep­ti­ble and will be more eas­i­ly af­fect­ed by the com­mon cold and any oth­er bac­te­ria. In spite of this, she works as a med­ical sales rep­re­sen­ta­tive, so she is al­ways busy on the road.

Ab­del­nor raised her 19-year-old son as a sin­gle mom. He is now her sup­port, dri­ving force and in­spi­ra­tion. "I try to live my life as ful­ly as pos­si­ble," she said. At nights, she some­times gets ter­ri­ble headaches and is moved to tears when she feels she can't go on. How­ev­er, Ab­del­nor, who has been de­scribed as a hap­py per­son, ac­cept­ed Je­sus Christ in­to her life. "It's my sus­tain­ing faith in God that keeps me go­ing," she said. She is not giv­ing up hope.

Some days di­a­mond, some days stone

Ab­del­nor's friends are on a dri­ve to raise US$135,000 to have a kid­ney trans­plant in Or­lan­do, Flori­da. Though that may seem daunt­ing, Ab­del­nor does not seem in­tim­i­dat­ed by the task ahead and has al­ready held fund-rais­ers with the help of her clos­est friends.

They are nowhere close to the goal, how­ev­er, and they plan to host more fund-rais­ing ven­tures. De­scrib­ing the stress­es of her life, she said, "I re­al­ly don't think I can do this for the next five years."

How­ev­er, she said she has a lot to be thank­ful and grate­ful for in her life. When asked how she is do­ing, Ab­del­nor said, "Some days are di­a­monds, some days are stone, and one day soon all mine will be di­a­monds. "In the mean­time, when life throws me lemons I will be mak­ing my jug of lemon­ade by the grace of Almighty God!"

In­fo:

Any­one wish­ing to con­tribute can make a de­posit at any Unit Trust Cor­po­ra­tion in ac­count no: 3429214-2