By outside appearances, it would seem as if Linda Deming is running for office.

Her campaign has buttons, yard signs, car signs and a Facebook page.

Linda Deming WCSH

But Deming, who lives in Pownal, is looking for a kidney, not votes.

The 63-year-old said her kidneys started failing two years ago.

Doctors believe it’s because she had been taken maximum-strength ibuprofen, an over-the-counter pain medication, for sore hips and knees.

Eventually, the medication caused damage to her kidneys, she said, and she had to start dialysis three times a week in December.

“I always said that I wasn’t going to stay alive by being attached to a machine, but that’s what’s going on,” she said Saturday.

Deming said she is in end-stage renal failure and is on a waiting list for a kidney transplant, but it usually takes three to 10 years for a kidney to become available for a transplant, usually through a donation of organs from someone who has died.

She wears a button that reads, “I need a kidney.” Her friends wear buttons that say, “My friend needs a kidney.” Yard signs and signs in her car windows convey the same message. A Facebook page describes her plight.

Her search is reminiscent of Christine Royles’ effort to find a kidney donor. The South Portland woman advertised her search this year with a message painted on the back window of her car: “Looking for someone to donate me their kidney. Must have type O blood,” along with a phone number.

Royle eventually found a donor, a corrections officer from Windham named Josh Dall-Leighton. The transplant was completed successfully in June, even though the effort was almost derailed by well-meaning friends who raised money online to pay for Dall-Leighton’s expenses and lost pay.

That ran afoul of federal laws against selling organs, but hospital lawyers eventually determined that there was no attempt to profit off the donation and the procedure went forward.

Deming said she and her husband have saved money to cover the lost pay of a donor and she said her insurance is covering the testing of potential donors.

The yard signs went out about three weeks ago and the buttons last week, she said, and the Facebook page went up two days ago.

Deming said she’s already heard from people from Alabama, Missouri and California and sent out packets of information and health questionnaires from the Maine Transplant Center, the Portland facility that handles screening for potential donors. She said the center will handle five potential donors at a time, so she’s only sent out a handful of packets so far and will send more if some possible donors are deemed unsuitable.

Deming said she has A-positive blood, so a kidney from a type A or type O donor could work.

Deming said she’ll keep trying until she finds a match.

“I use the term ‘desperate,’ ” Deming said. “I will do whatever I can to try to get a kidney.”

Related Stories