Moultrian raising money for kidney transplant

Published 10:36 pm Saturday, May 7, 2011

Crystal Hawkins’ childhood kidney problems seemed to clear up, but when she was pregnant with her third child her doctor told her that the critical organs were failing.

Now that child, Kalah, is 2 and Hawkins is on dialysis three times a week after the kidneys failed much faster than doctors expected.

The 30-year-old is working to come up with the $5,000 contribution she needs by Oct. 4 to be placed on a transplant list.

R.B. Wright Elementary School, where she has two sons attending, is helping with a May 14 yard sale to benefit Hawkins and help raise the $3,600 she still needs to reach that amount.

Kidney disease runs in her family on her father’s side, Hawkins said.

“I kept noticing my legs had been swollen and it was hard for me to breathe,” she said. “When I had my second child I started having high blood pressure. When I was pregnant last time it was worse.

“All these years I thought I was just gaining weight having kids, and it was really my kidney.”

Hawkins has set up an account with the Georgia Transplant Foundation and has had fundraisers, including a barbecue plate sale, to raise money.

If she is able to get a transplant she will have to take anti-rejection medication for the rest of her life. No family members match her rare O-negative blood type so she will have to wait for a matching kidney.

Currently Hawkins is undergoing three days of dialysis a week that last three and a half hours. She has been on that routine for a year and a half.

“It makes you real tired and sick,” she said. “It just takes a lot of your time. I want to go to school, but it’s hard with the dialysis time.”

The yard sale is scheduled for 7 a.m.-11 a.m. Saturday at East Side Baptist Church, 24 Sixth St. N.E.

Items for the yard can be donated by contacting Jean Allen, a counselor at R.B. Wright, at (229) 890-6199. Allen said donations also can be dropped off at the church from 2:45-6 p.m. Thursday.

Allen said the school wants to help Hawkins’ sons, Deontae Edwards, 10, and 5-year-old Marquez Edwards.

“The kids are the cutest, sweetest things,” Allen said. “Everybody just loves them.”

Monetary donations to Hawkins’ account can be made online at http://www.gatransplant.org/. Once at the website click on fundraising accounts, then individual fundraising pages and type in Crystal Hawkins. Or mail donations to Georgia Transplant Foundation, 6600 Peathtree Dunwoody Road, 600 Embassy Row Suite 250, Atlanta GA 30328.