By Michael Oliveira
michael@northstarreporter.com
Barbara Belyea is hoping that someone can come forward to become a kidney donor for her friend, Richard Bareham who has lived with one kidney since he was 17.
Bareham lost his kidney in a freak accident during a baseball game. Now at age 75 after decades of his kidney functioning at a very high percentage, it has dropped from 86% to 10% of his kidney function levels in the last calendar year alone. He was recently approved of getting a donor in the first week of December 2023 after a strenuous eight month process to getting approved.
Due to this approval, Dick has had to go through home dialysis which is a way for him to transfer blood into his kidney. There is an hour to an hour in a half process to set this up, and it takes three to four hours after that for it to be completed daily.
cannot go more than two days without treatment to his kidney, which impacts a lot of his travel plans. He is an avid fisherman, and due to not being able to travel much, he hasn’t been able to fish as often as he would like.
“I want to be able to live long enough, especially to be able to teach my 4-year-old granddaughter how to fish”, he said.
Bareham needs help to find himself a kidney donor, and according to Belyea, “Dick’s insurance will cover the medical bills for the procedure”.
Anyone can donate a kidney, the only thing that disqualifies someone from donating is a body mass index 35 or more, under the age of 25, or over 75, and a history of diabetes, or major medical conditions.
“I am optimistic we will find a match for his kidney,” said Belyea.
For more information about the process, visit www.laheylivingdonor.org or call 781-744-2500.
