Lincoln family holding garage sale fundraiser to help pay for kidney transplant
A unique garage sale aims to help a Lincoln woman with an incurable disease. Heather Penick has cystic fibrosis and needs a new kidney.
The garage sale is raising money to help pay for the surgery.
“It’s a challenge. Every day I have to watch my diet; my salt intake, my fluid intake with the kidney disease,” Said Heather Penick, who needs the new kidney. “I go to dialysis three times a week. It takes up a lot of time. It’s basically a full–time job taking care of yourself.”
She isn’t a stranger to getting new organs. In 2000 she had a double lung transplant. Channel 8 Eyewitness News interviewed her back then. Two lobes were donated by two family members.
“How do you ask someone, ‘Hey can I borrow a lung for a while?’. I didn’t know how I was going to ask anyone that.”
Heather was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis after she was born. Her family knew heather had a long road ahead of her.
“We knew her internal organs would eventually be affected, so the lungs with first, and now the kidneys. We need to raise like $45,000 – $50,000. This is our first fundraiser,” said Roberta Doeden, Heather’s mother.
They’re hopeful their garage sale fundraiser will help just a little bit. A mother of three, heather also has the challenge of trying to raise a young family. Penick has a nine, seven, and three-year-old.
Thankfully, she already has a potential donor…her older sister. Both will need to undergo tests through the summer to be sure that she’s an exact match, and if she is, she’ll be good to go. Heather and her family are touched seeing so many strangers come to buy a few things, and even donate a bit more to help her cause.
“It’s awesome. Lincoln is such a great community. They’re always willing to offer help when needed and it just shows you that there’s a lot of love here. It’s a great state and a great community.”
Their garage sale continues tomorrow from 9 a.m. until dark. If you’d like to stop by and help their address is 4211 La Salle Street.
