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Longtime Lake County leader launches new campaign - for a kidney

Even before the pandemic pushed most of the country into grim isolation, longtime Lake County leader and public servant Bonnie Thomson Carter felt hidden and sheltered.

She was diagnosed with an aggressive rare blood cancer in August 2019 - one that damaged her kidneys. She was put on dialysis and endured six months of chemotherapy, four stem cell harvests and tandem stem cell transplants.

Carter dealt with her health crisis largely in private. That changed when she realized that she needed a kidney to save her life.

Carter, who served 20 years on the Lake County Board, decided this spring to take her battle public and to ask others to consider becoming a living donor - for her or for someone else awaiting a miracle.

"It's making a big ask. It's not like just saying, 'Hey, can I borrow your lawn mower?'" Carter said. "That's why the campaign is not about giving me an organ. It's about educating people that there is a need."

And that's why the yard signs Carter's volunteer organization made say "YOU can give Bonnie the gift of life."

"It speaks to them directly," Carter said. "People will look at it and think, 'Wow, can I do that?'"

Bonnie Thomson Carter with her granddaughter Mary Branscum in 2020. "Grandchildren are the best medicine," she said. courtesy of Bonnie Thomson Carter

Live organ donation is likely Carter's only way to extend her life beyond the next few years.

In 2019, Carter was diagnosed with an aggressive multiple myeloma cancer. A succession of treatments worked against the cancer, and Carter is in remission. But the damage to her kidneys remains.

As a result, the 65-year-old Ingleside grandmother of 10 has to receive lengthy dialysis treatments twice each week.

"My doctors said the life expectancy for someone on dialysis at my age is three to five years, and my health will continue to deteriorate the longer I remain on dialysis," Carter said.

The conventional way for someone to receive an organ is by waiting until a compatible organ donor dies. But cancer survivors have to be in remission for two years before they can be active on the transplant waiting list. Even then, the wait to receive a kidney could take years.

Members of Carter's family who are healthy enough to give a kidney are in the process of finding out whether they are a match. Carter said even if a person isn't a direct match for her, medical officials may find they are a match for someone else.

She said her health insurance will cover any expenses incurred by a kidney donor, including testing and surgery.

"A new kidney will completely give me the gift of life and will extend my life expectancy by decades," Carter said.

Lake County Board member Bonnie Thomson Carter, left, participated in a ceremony for the completion of the Rollins Road and Route 83 project in Round Lake Beach. Daily Herald file, 2014

Carter served on the Lake County Board from 1996 to 2016 and was the president of the Lake County Forest Preserve District Board from 2002 to 2010.

She led the pro-environment Republican bloc that sought to control development in the county in the 1990s and preserve open space. As a forest board member and then its president, she oversaw the acquisition of thousands of acres and the construction of miles of trails.

These days, Carter describes herself as being slower than before and having less energy. She isn't able to drive herself because her body shakes and she is lightheaded. But despite all that, she said she is at peace and happy.

"Grandchildren are the best medicine," she said.

Bonnie Thomson Carter plays with her grandchildren in 2019. The girl in the top left is Aubrey Carter, at bottom left is Cruz Carter, and the girl riding Grandma is Mary Branscum. courtesy of Bonnie Thomson Carter

Since her health problems began, Carter said, her spiritual life has become very deep.

"I'm in a good place," she said, "and believe a donor will find me."

• Those interested in more information about live organ donation and Carter's struggle can find out more at her website, bonniesgiftoflife.com.

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