Dominique Duhme is trying to lose weight. He's not losing weight so he can fit into his favourite pants or because someone was hassling him.
He's losing weight so he can donate a kidney to his seriously ill wife.
We love him.
Wife Karina is so sick she undergoes three five-hour dialysis sessions a week since the kidney donated to her by her sister began to fail. The devoted husband was told he wouldn't be allowed to donate one of his kidney's to his wife unless he improved his own health.
He had no idea if he'd even be a compatible donor when he first spoke to doctors about the transplant and there's a risk the Karina's body will reject the second transplant, but he's determined to do all he can to save her life.
Doctors told him, "If you want to give her a kidney, you've got to lose 30 kilograms. Otherwise the surgeon won't even look at you."
"And that basically did the trick for me," he told news.com.au.
Duhme started a strict diet and intense training program including swimming, cycling and running. He's a man on a mission. The 40-year-old is now training for his first triathlon happening this November. And he's lost the weight needed to be an organ donor for his wife. In fact, tests have revealed he's an ideal candidate for his wife - a perfect match.
"It's a million-to-one shot, and Karina never thought I'd be a perfect match," he said. "I went through the preliminary tests, we went through the cross-matching, then we had to wait four weeks. We got the email on a Monday morning in November of last year and it turned out I was even a better match than her sister was. My wife was floored. She was just sitting there, it was just like winning Lotto. To get a better match than a sibling, that's very, very rare."
Karina said, "I was on dialysis the other day - you have plenty of time to think sitting there for five hours at a time - and thought it would be a nice finish to all of this. For me to get fit after the operation, to exercise together ... Dom is so passionate about it. It would be his dream for us to run it together."
The operation will take place in a Brisbane hospital and the devoted couple plan to run next year's Noosa Triathlon together.
"A bit of a pilgrimage for the two of us," her husband added.
Karina Duhme, 45, first became sick with strep throat when she was 20 and living in England. Complications affected both her kidneys and her little sister stepped in to donate one of hers. It took approximately 16 years for that kidney to fail. And now, if everything goes to plan, she'll receive her new kidney donated by her husband early next year and enjoy another almost two decades of better health.
Would you donate an organ to someone you loved?
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