Jenny Groth has dealt with a lot of pain, having survived a near-fatal hit-and-run in 2005. Nonetheless, she says that kidney dialysis was the thing that nearly broke her.

Jenny was diagnosed with kidney failure in 2008 but it wasn’t until an accidental overdose on thyroid medication in 2020 that she had to start dialysis.

“I got peritonitis. It was more painful than labour,” says Jenny.

Then she got a viral infection and ended up on haemodialysis.

“It was agony,” she says.

“I had to go to hospital 3 – 4 times a week and I was getting horrendous migraines. The drugs they were giving me were only dulling the pain; not taking it away.

“On the night before I got the call about the transplant, I was in hospital and I thought, ‘I can’t do this anymore’. I was ready to just let nature take its course,” says Jenny.   

When the call came through that a kidney was available, Jenny says she felt devastated.

“I cried for 10 minutes before Sheriden, the transplant coordinator, could calm me down. I knew it meant that someone else was dying – this person who had people who loved them.

“I was transferred from the private to the public side of John Hunter and I had to wait. I knew I was waiting for someone to die,” she says.

When she arrived at the other side of the hospital, Jenny says that her normally very serious Nephrologist was ‘bouncing around like a kid in a lolly shop’.

“Once the kidney became available, it all happened very quickly. They had to drain my immune system and take all the plasma out. In the theatre, I could see the surgeon working on the kidney,” says Jenny.

It’s been nearly a year since her life-saving surgery on 16th August 2023.

Jenny has been on 10mgs of anti-rejection medication that gives her extreme insomnia.

“I generally get to sleep around 3am,” she says.

“We tried to reduce it once and I went straight into rejection. My doctor thinks we can reduce it after a year so I am looking forward to that.”

During her treatment and recovery, the former Lake Macquarie policewoman has been studying a commerce degree. She is one subject away from finishing.

“I can’t go back to work until I get the insomnia under control,” she says.

Nevertheless, Jenny is a tireless advocate for Donate Life organ donation.

“It’s as simple as logging into Medicare and opting to donate. Once it’s done, you receive a card in the mail. Lots of people message me to tell me when they receive their cards,” she says.

To become an organ donor, click here: https://www.donatelife.gov.au/