For her, the best Christmas gift can’t be found under a tree. Find out why
Shelly Wheaton’s journey to find a kidney donor grabbed attention with a plea on her car’s back windshield, so she figured the journey should end with a message from the same place.
On her back windshield, in the middle of images of snowflakes and ornaments, is a message timed for Christmas:
“The gift that can’t be found under the tree. The gift of life.”
Wheaton, a 57-year-old Fort Worth interior designer, got attention after she put a decal on her back windshield reading “Hero needed. Donate a kidney — type O” along with her contact information.
She received a flood of messages, including about 10 to 15 from possible interested donors. But her hairdresser of 20 years, Andrea Newsom, wound up donating one of her kidneys. They had the transplant operation Nov. 20.
The decal seeking a donor still represented a big step for Wheaton, who had taken three years to tell any of her friends, co-workers and clients she had polycystic kidney disease, or PKD, an inherited disorder attacking her kidneys. She was finally advocating for herself, and her life, she said.
She designed the new holiday decal on her back windshield to let people know she got her kidney and to spread the word about kidney donations.
Hero found
Underneath the line about the gift of life, there’s one more message in large letters: “Hero found. Thank you Andrea.”
“There’s nothing I can get under that tree that will replace what I already got,” Wheaton said. “How many people get an organ for Christmas?”
Newsom, 53, has a hard time thinking about the decal without crying.
“There are parts of it that definitely make me very emotional, but it’s a happy emotional,” she said. “And my family will tell you I’m a crier.”
The friends, who were already close through years of salon conversations, said they’ve become like sisters through the transplant process. They text each other nearly every day. They spent part of their Thanksgiving together at Newsom’s house and hadn’t ruled out getting together on Christmas.
At the least, both will spend part of the day thinking about the joy of their successful transplant operation, and of the bond they share, they said.
“We’re right at Christmas and the end of the year, and here we are going into a new decade, and our whole future’s in front of us,” Newsom said. “Fresh starts.”
Wheaton went to her doctor about five years ago for a routine checkup, and the doctor felt lumps around her kidneys. After tests and an ultrasound, the doctor told her she had PKD, a disorder producing masses of cysts that were slowly crushing her kidneys. There was no cure, he told her.
As she read about the disease online and understood what she had to deal with, a sense of helplessness set in.
Her solution was to pretend like there was nothing wrong.
“For the first three years, I was in total denial,” Wheaton said. “I couldn’t talk about it. I wouldn’t talk about it. I was worried about how it would affect my business. And what would my clients think? Would they think that I’m no longer capable of handling their business?”
She reached a point, however, where she could no longer deny it, as the function of her kidneys dropped with each week, she said. She learned about the transplant process, attended seminars and became involved with the Baylor Scott & White transplant team.
One of her biggest takeaways, she said, was that research shows kidneys from living donors last longer than kidneys from deceased donors.
The idea for the initial decal came from Facebook, where Wheaton had seen other people put messages on their cars seeking donors. She put the decal on her car in April 2019. Little did she know her hairdresser had already been thinking hard about becoming her donor.
‘Ultimate gift’
Newsom said she believed from the moment Wheaton told her about her PKD she would be a match and give her one of her kidneys.
“I didn’t say anything at that moment,” Newsom said. “I took some time and processed it and approached my husband with it, because it was very important I had my family’s support. Not that I had to have permission, but I really needed their support.”
Her husband told her if this was what she was called to do, she should do it, she said. They together told their two adult sons, who gave her their support.
Newsom told Wheaton about her plans during one of their appointments in June 2019. Wheaton, who had scraps of foil in her hair where she was getting highlights, began to cry. Soon they were both in tears.
“She goes, ‘I guess I haven’t told you. I’m going to be your donor,’” Wheaton said. “I mean, just like that. With 100 percent conviction.”
Tests would determine Newsom was a match — even though her blood type is O positive and Wheaton’s is O negative — and doctors told her she was a good candidate. She and Wheaton waited for months until they could be squeezed into the surgery schedule.
They both said they had a sense of faith everything was going to be OK. When they got the call they should come in for their operation on Nov. 20, neither felt nervous, they said.
Coming out of surgery, Wheaton’s first question, “Is my new kidney working?”
“And of course it started, it worked immediately, so that was great,” she said. “Once I got home, I did pretty good. I was out and about to Andrea’s house in a week.”
A special Christmas
This Christmas feels special, Wheaton said, because it falls on a Wednesday, the same day of the week she found out Newsom was a match, and the same day of the week they had their operation. Wednesday, she said, “is our day.”
She knows she will spend the holiday reflecting on the gift she’s been given, she said.
She’s glad anyone who sees her car will know she got the best Christmas present.
“It is absolutely the ultimate gift,” Wheaton said. “And I guess with Christmas right around the corner, I wanted to find a way to show my gratitude. Since this decal on my car was such a turning point, I just wanted to thank Andrea.”
