Arlington couple has one wish for Christmas: a kidney donor

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The Greenlee’s Arlington home is decked for the holidays. The couple, who has been married for 36 years, has one Christmas wish: a kidney.

“It would be a tremendous Christmas present,” Stewart David (Dave) Greenlee said. “I wish for a donor.”

In June, Dave found out his kidneys were failing.

“I can remember hearing that from the doctor,” Dave’s wife Debbie Greenlee said. “It was just a rush of emotion.”

To buy time and stave off more advanced disease, Greenlee went on a strict ‘kidney diet’, which is low in sodium and potassium.

“I’ve lost 47 pounds since August,” Greenlee said. “Debbie is my champion and my hero in all of this.”

Debbie spends most of her day on the computer filling out medical forms and donor forms and updating social media with pleas for a live kidney donor. She uses #SaveZazu, a nickname Greelee’s sons gave him.

‘I’m sure people are getting tired of seeing posts from me,” Debbie Greenlee said laughing. “If I send a request for a kidney, I’m not expecting them to give it to us, but I’d like them to spread the word. That’s what it’s all about.”

“Maybe find somebody who’s kind enough, and in the position to, and has the health to donate a kidney,” Dave Greenlee said. “I had no idea until I needed one that there was such a lack of organs.”

The waitlist for a kidney from a deceased donor can be up to 10 years, which is why more live kidney donors are needed.

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The Greenlees are leaving Tuesday for a holiday vacation that was planned long before they knew Dave’s kidneys were failing.

“I think it could be our last trip,” Dave Greenlee said. “We’re in it for the long haul, regardless,” Debbie Greenlee said.

The Greenlees set up a donor site through the National Kidney Registry. You can find it here.