An ad on the MBTA is urging you to ‘Be a Hero.’ Here’s why.
“I’m just very hopeful that some angel will decide to donate.”
An advertisement about halfway down the Red Line platform at Downtown Crossing isn’t trying to sell anything. Instead, the poster features a caped figure looking out over the Boston skyline, headlined with six words: Be a hero. Save a life.The email address under the plea to commuters heading from to Alewife reads, “akidney4trish.”Patricia Kehoe, a 66-year-old retired English teacher and grandmother, is on the other side of that email address. The Dartmouth resident, who is in kidney failure after being diagnosed with glomerulonephritis, has been on dialysis for almost five years. “I’m pretty desperate,” Kehoe said. She told Boston.com she’s been searching for a donor for about four of those years. She thought she found one last year through advertisements in local newspapers and posts on Facebook. She also has a sign on the back of her car. But after a year of tests, the woman who wanted to be her donor ended up being ruled out medically.
Patricia Kehoe with her granddaughter.
That’s when Kehoe decided to take out an advertisement on the MBTA. She figured someone closer to Boston Medical Center, where her transplant coordinator is based, might be more willing to donate.
The ad was purchased through Outfront, the agency that handles all advertising requests in MBTA stations and vehicles. Kehoe said she it has been up for about three months, and she’s received five emails in response.
According to the MBTA, Kehoe’s ad soliciting an organ donor is the first of its kind to appear on the T.
“Last time I called my hospital, they said the wait [for a donor] could now be 10 years,” Kehoe said. “Well, I’m not going to survive 10 years. … That’s why I’ve been reaching out as much as I can.”
The former teacher, who taught in Westport for 30 years, said she’s also getting some help with advertising from Dan Desmarais, who himself received an emergency kidney transplant and has since been helping others search for donors to “pay it forward.” It was through help from Desmarais last year that she found her initial donor.
An estimated 12 people die every day while waiting for a kidney transplant, according to the National Kidney Foundation.
“I’m just very hopeful that some angel will decide to donate,” Kehoe said.
https://www.facebook.com/patricia.h.kehoe/posts/3578715385487386
