RICHMOND, Va. — A Richmond woman with a rare disease thanked a stranger who will soon give her part of his liver.
Shari Bennett-Speer was 30 years old when she listened to her body and sought a doctor for persistent stomach issues.
“They did an ultrasound. They figured they’d find something like IBS, and they discovered that my liver and kidneys were covered in and filled with cysts,” she explained.
Doctors diagnosed her with a degenerative and genetic condition called polycystic liver and kidney disease.
No one in her immediate family ever had this deadly disease.
A liver transplant would help, but Bennett-Speer’s doctors said her condition did not warrant a spot on the transplant list for a diseased donor.
“I just started telling people my story and my niece contacted VCU Health. A friend of mine contacted VCU Health to get tested,” she recalled. “They went through months and months of testing and right at the end of their testing, they were both told they weren’t candidates.”