Former Rochester Nurse Searches for Kidney Donor

Originally published in the Democrat and Chronicle's "West Extra" Column on July 14, 2019.
Woman who gave to community now needs help
by Caurie Putnam
When Lois Reddick was the manager of Jordan Health Link, a drug and alcohol treatment program, in the early 2000s, it wasn’t uncommon for her to come home from a 14-hour shift and find her front porch in Chili teeming with bags of clothes.
The garments were donations for a clothing closet Reddick started at Rochester’s Jordan Health — not part of her job description, but one of the many extra things the registered nurse did to help her clients.
“Lois is the most caring, considerate, loving person I have ever met,” said Marie Stein, a friend and former co-worker of Reddick’s. “She will go the distance for anyone.”
Now, Stein, of Gates, is hoping the community will go the distance for Reddick, 73, who is on dialysis and in need of a kidney transplant due to complications from diabetes.
Reddick and her husband, Franklin, moved to Tallahassee, Florida, in 2016 after she retired, but she considers Rochester home and hopes to get her transplant done at UR Medicine’s Strong Memorial Hospital, where she was a nurse from 1970 to 1984.
“When I found out how sick Lois was, I cried a lot,” Stein said. “She’s a wonderful person who has helped thousands of people. I’m hoping somebody in the community who knew her will step forward.”
Stein started a Facebook group to find a living donor willing and eligible to donate one of their two healthy kidneys to her friend.
According to United Network for Organ Sharing, about 6,000 living donations (mostly kidneys) take place in the United States each year and one in four of these donors aren’t biologically related to the recipient. UR Medicine has a living donor kidney and liver transplant program.
“Although no one has stepped forward so far as a live donor, we’re hopeful,” Reddick said. “I’m hanging in there, but I’m in need. I’m proud and happy I gave a lot to the Rochester community; now I hope someone will reciprocate with me.”
Reddick, a daughter of sharecroppers, was born in Alabama and moved to Kendall, Orleans County, at age 12 when her family settled there. She graduated fromJohn Marshall High School, Monroe Community College and Roberts Wesleyan College.
In addition to Jordan and Strong, Reddick worked as a nurse and/or credentialed alcoholism and substance abuse counselor at the former Park Ridge Hospital, Community Care of Rochester and Action for a Better Community.
The mom of one and grandmother of three, has also written children’s books, founded
the nonprofit Women Helping Women with her three sisters and was an active member of Aenon Baptist Church when she lived in the Rochester area.
If you’re interested in donating a kidney to Reddick, please email Stein at mariestein@hotmail.com. The Facebook group for Reddick is called Donate a Kidney facebook.com/groups/320976101890893/ More information on UR Medicine’s living donor transplant program is available at (585) 275-5875 or urmc.rochester .edu/transplant/live-donor.aspx.
Pick of the week
Brockport Summer Serenades 2019 Concert Series continues with a free performance by the Brockport Big Band at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 18, at the Brockport Welcome Center, 11 Water St. For a full series schedule, visit brockportny.org.
Contact Caurie at caurie@urgrad.rochester.edu with news from west-side towns. She’s on Twitter at @CauriePutnam and on Facebook at facebook.com/WestExtra .

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