Story by Gail Parsons | Photographs by Leidy Lester

Edwards performs in local theater productions, spoils her grandchildren, volunteers in the arts community and helps local businesses with marketing at J. DelSUR Marketing Group , all while battling multiple myeloma and kidney failure.

She doesn’t let these challenges bring her down.

“I just refuse to stop living my life over this,” Edwards said. “I don’t want to be viewed as a sick person.”

It was a few days after she stepped off the stage following a run of The Full Monty that she first realized something was wrong.

She thought it was the flu, or a virus.

“I was nauseous, I was throwing up for about two weeks, and finally checked into the hospital,” she recalled “They discovered I had 6% kidney function and was in a very grave situation.”

Further testing revealed she also had multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that develops in plasma cells within bone marrow. It’s not curable, but it is treatable.

“I got all that wonderful news on Christmas Eve,” she said. “I had no idea I was sick. One day you’re dancing, the next day you’re on dialysis, it’s just crazy.”

Edwards is now in remission, but the journey is far from over. She has spent the last four years going to dialysis three times a week while waiting for a kidney transplant. The dialysis treatments have contributed to heart complications, and she estimates medical expenses not covered by insurance have climbed into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Despite the challenges, Edwards remains optimistic. “I feel like everything’s going to work out,” she said.

Not her first run-in with cancer

Decades earlier, Edwards battled breast cancer. She was only 36 when she discovered a lump and got a mammogram.

“They didn’t see it, but I knew it was there, so I demanded a sonogram,” she said. “It was 2.5 centimeters.”

She had a lumpectomy, but more cancer was discovered. The second time around she opted for a double mastectomy to just wipe out any possibility it would come back.

“I had chemo, radiation, I had reconstructive surgery,” she said.

Over the two year ordeal she continued to work and raise her two children. “I worked in television at the time and that kept me going,” she said. “Between my kids and my job, I just charged forward. What’s the alternative? You have to just stay positive and keep moving forward, and hope for the best.”

She doesn’t deny the new diagnosis was devastating.

“By the grace of God, things worked out, and now here we are again,” she said.

I thought I was done with all this cancer nonsense,” she said. “This time was harder than the first time because I was young and naïve at the time.

She turned that experience into an opportunity to help others through her work with the American Cancer Society and Relay for Life. This time, however, the challenge of a kidney transplant is different.

Her O-negative blood type makes finding a compatible kidney even more difficult.

“O negative is the universal donor, but not so much the recipient,” she said. “It’s hard to find a kidney match.”

Even if a willing donor is not a direct match, Edwards could still receive a transplant through a kidney exchange program, which matches incompatible donor-recipient pairs with other pairs so each recipient ultimately receives a compatible kidney.

“I don’t know how in some mysterious way, it’s going to come to me, but I know it will, and I feel like this is going to be my year,” she said. “I didn’t want to stop working and just have my life be series of doctor appointments and dialysis – that would crush me. I must focus on things that make me happy.”

One piece of good news came recently when Edwards completed all the requirements needed to be placed on the kidney transplant list at Emory Hospital in Atlanta. She is also listed at several other transplant centers, including hospitals in Augusta and Jacksonville. Because each transplant center maintains its own waiting list, patients must complete a separate evaluation and registration process for each one.

“It could be any time, or it could be another two years,” she said.

Because she doesn’t know, she doesn’t waste time thinking about what she shouldn’t or can’t do — she finds ways to do what she wants.

She recently stepped back on stage for the musical Come From Away, which told the true, and inspiring story of 7,000 stranded airline passengers diverted to a small town in Newfoundland following the events of September 11, 2001.

“It was wonderful to just be part of that production,” she said. “That’s what keeps me going. I don’t let it get me down, if anything, it amps me up to live larger.”

Although she said she is a naturally positive person, she doesn’t discredit the remarkable support she gets from her family and friends. She even has one friend from the theater who is undergoing testing to see if she can be a donor.

Until she gets the call that a kidney is available, Edwards plans to keep living life the same way she always has — spending time with family, volunteering in theater productions and enjoying every chance she gets to spoil her grandchildren.

As she sees it, dwelling on the uncertainty won’t change the outcome.

"I've got too much to live for,” she said. “I want to see my grandkids grow up and dance at their wedding.” ■

How to Become a Kidney Donor

Kidney donation can happen in two ways: after death through organ donation registration or while living as a kidney donor.

Patients who receive a cadaver donor live 8 to 10 years longer. Those who receive a living donor live an average of 20 to 40 years longer.

According to the National Kidney Foundation, vary by transplant center, but donors generally must be in good health and free of certain serious medical conditions.

Potential donors can choose to donate to a specific person or make a non-directed donation. A donor does not have to be a direct match for a recipient. Through kidney exchange, or “paired donation” programs, incompatible donor-recipient pairs can be matched with other pairs, so each recipient receives a compatible kidney.

Most living donors spend one to two nights in the hospital following surgery and return to normal activities within four to six weeks, according to the National Kidney Foundation.

People interested in becoming a donor can contact a transplant center directly for information about the evaluation process or register as an organ donor through their state’s driver’s license program. Additional information is available through the National Kidney Foundation and local transplant centers.

People interested in learning more about living kidney donation or being tested as a potential donor can contact the Emory Transplant Center, 5353 Reynolds St., Suite 212, Savannah at (855) 366-7989.