There’s an old saying that says, “A parent’s job is never done.” Norma Brickey typifies that statement. Norma Brickey, 82, has been driving the streets of Columbus, Ohio, with a sign in her car window. It reads: “My son needs a kidney, O positive,” followed by her phone number.
Brickey knows the difficulties of finding a kidney firsthand: Both she and another of her sons have had kidney transplants. All three suffer from polycystic kidney disease. With more than 121,000 people on the kidney transplant waiting list, 3,000 being added every month, Norma is not content to sit around and wait.
Robin Young with NPR’s Here and Now asked Brickey how her efforts were going so far. Brickey replied:
I finally did get organized, and I still have a lot of callbacks to do. I’ve tried to reach them, but I don’t get answers all the time. But I keep trying. But I’ve had a lot of people that called. I have probably about 20 people that are testing, some of them have called me back, and they haven’t tested that out. I’m still searching. I’m still on my mission.
