Wye Mountain woman gives kidney to friend
River Valley and Ozark | Tammy Keith
EILISH PALMER / Contributing Photographer
Amy Gray Light, left, who has a rare disease called von Hippel-Lindau, and Cathy May became close friends through a neighborhood social group they call Women of Wye, or WOW. After May donated a kidney to Light in August, Light said the two are more like sisters. “We’ve always been feeling like we’ve got each other’s backs because of everything we’ve gone through, but there’s a deeper communication there,†Light said.
WYE MOUNTAIN â€" Amy Gray Light and Cathy May, both 54, have shared a love of red wine, a passion for animals and, now, a kidney.
“If it weren’t for Cathy, I would not be here today,†Light said. “What do you say to someone who gives you life?â€
Light laughed, because the whole story is almost too terrible, and too good, to be true.
They met 12 years ago in a fun-loving group of friends who live on the mountain in Bigelow and call themselves the Women of Wye, or WOW.
“We’ve all been together through thick and thin,†May said.
May found out that Light has a rare disease, von Hippel-Lindau, or VHL, that causes cancerous tumors to pop up everywhere in her body, including her brain and her kidneys. Light has half a pancreas and was down to a remnant of one kidney.
About five years ago, Light told her WOW friends she needed a kidney transplant to live.
“I can’t live without a kidney, and the other kidney had cancer on it, so it was only a matter of time,†Light said.
Read more
{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
EILISH PALMER / Contributing Photographer
Amy Gray Light, left, who has a rare disease called von Hippel-Lindau, and Cathy May became close friends through a neighborhood social group they call Women of Wye, or WOW. After May donated a kidney to Light in August, Light said the two are more like sisters. “We’ve always been feeling like we’ve got each other’s backs because of everything we’ve gone through, but there’s a deeper communication there,†Light said.
WYE MOUNTAIN â€" Amy Gray Light and Cathy May, both 54, have shared a love of red wine, a passion for animals and, now, a kidney.
“If it weren’t for Cathy, I would not be here today,†Light said. “What do you say to someone who gives you life?â€
Light laughed, because the whole story is almost too terrible, and too good, to be true.
They met 12 years ago in a fun-loving group of friends who live on the mountain in Bigelow and call themselves the Women of Wye, or WOW.
“We’ve all been together through thick and thin,†May said.
May found out that Light has a rare disease, von Hippel-Lindau, or VHL, that causes cancerous tumors to pop up everywhere in her body, including her brain and her kidneys. Light has half a pancreas and was down to a remnant of one kidney.
About five years ago, Light told her WOW friends she needed a kidney transplant to live.
“I can’t live without a kidney, and the other kidney had cancer on it, so it was only a matter of time,†Light said.
Read more
{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
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