Linda Deming is desperate. Living with stage 5 renal failure, she doesn’t know how long she can survive without a kidney transplant. Deming does know that the average wait for a kidney is three to six years from the time a person goes on dialysis, which she’s been doing since December.

So the Pownal resident needs a donation from someone willing to give up a kidney, and Deming is making a plea to the community. Four signs she placed a month ago outside her Brown Road home, and four more outside the home of her friend Deb Uecker on Durham Road in Freeport, announce sequentially to the public: “I need a new kidney”; “Before it’s too late”; “Would you try to donate?”; “Call Linda 688-2262.”

“I put signs up because I didn’t know what else to do,” said Deming, who also has a Facebook page where she publicizes her quest. “(Dialysis) makes you tired. It’s mentally exhausting.”

Early last week, it appeared help might be on the way. A man who lives in Durham, not far from Deming, called her. She quickly mailed the man a packet of information that a potential kidney donor needs to ascertain if his kidney is a match for Deming’s.

“He just said he saw the signs and he would be happy to be tested,” Deming said. “I said I don’t have the words to express my thanks on that, and he said I don’t have to say anything.”

The man who responded to Deming did not return phone calls made by the Tri-Town Weekly seeking comment on his offer.

Deming is hoping for the same good fortune that happened to a South Portland woman in June. Josh Dall-Leighton of Windham donated a kidney to Christine Royles during a transplant operation at Maine Medical Center. Royles used signs, too. Royles got lucky when she posted a sign in the window of her car late last year stating she was searching for a matching kidney donor. Dall-Leighton saw the sign and contacted Royles, saying he would donate the kidney that would save her life.

A living donor undergoes a blood test to determine blood type compatibility with the recipient. If the donor and recipient are compatible, a battery of tests commonly follows.

Uecker has known Deming for more than 20 years, since Deming taught her children in pre-school. She and Deming collaborated on the signs, and Uecker gave Deming a gentle reminder when she first put them out.

“They weren’t as good at the beginning,” Uecker said. “But she took them back and made the letters bolder. People have commented about them. Some people think they’re for me.”

Uecker and others who want to help Deming’s cause also wear buttons that say, “My friend needs a kidney.”

“I have two, actually,” Uecker said. “I have one on my tote bag that I carry and one when I’m out and about, anywhere I can generate any talk about it.”

Uecker said that Deming is a giver, who now needs a giver.

“I think she’s very sweet,” Uecker said. “She’s the type of person who gives a lot. She’d do anything for you.”

While Deming awaits the results of the compatibility tests, she deals with dialysis three times a week at Fresenius Medical Center in Bath. Beneath her right collar bone, she wears a stent that goes into a large vein that leads to her heart.

“It takes the blood in and out of my body so it can be cleared through the dialysis machine,” Deming said. “I have good clearance. The blood is going in and out fine.”

Deming, 66, lives with her husband of 33 years, Ian, who is chief financial officer for the Maine Education Association in Augusta. Her two cockapoos keep Deming company during the day.

“He is my rock,” Deming said of her husband. “I try to stay positive. I never ever want to be kept alive by a machine.”

Deming learned of her kidney disease during a routine physical three years ago.

“Actually, there’s not a lot of symptoms to kidney disease,” she said. “I was tested for the level of creatinine (which measures kidney function) in my blood. The level wasn’t right. More tests showed stage 3 out of 5.”

Deming said she was overweight and her knees and back ached.

“Ibuprofren is what ate up my kidneys,” she said. “I took the maximum extra-strength dose every day. I lost 190 pounds through gastric bypass 51?2 years ago.”

Linda DemingFour signs outside the Pownal home of Linda Deming tell passers-by that she is in dire need of a kidney donor.Staff photo by Larry Grard