A kidney for dad - Daughter donates organ to ailing father

Easton Johnson has been on dialysis for 13 years due to renal failure.

But come tomorrow, he will undergo a surgical operation during which he will be gifted a kidney, courtesy of his 23-year-old daughter.

"I don't even know how to explain it," said 50-year-old Johnson, who is from Blue Hole in Montpelier, St James.

"I have been on dialysis for 13 years ... It has been rough. I am getting a break now and I just want to hold it with my two hands and make the best use of it," Johnson said. "This is another opportunity in life, it is almost a new life. Mi tell myself that mi almost come back to be 15 again. Mi a ask God to just guide me along the path and guide her same way."

He told THE STAR that his daughter, Shenece, was moved to donate a kidney after other relatives got cold feet.

The transplant will be done at the Falmouth Hospital in Trelawny. It is being facilitated through a programme being carried out by overseas doctors.

"I was having dialogue with my brothers and at the time that they were supposed to come and see the doctor, they got scared. My daughter, she normally come and look for me on the dialysis machine. She said: 'Daddy, yuh know me can assist you'."

"She never shuffled at any time. Words are not enough to express how much I feel about her. It takes guts to do something like this. It nuh tek any and anybody to come up and do this. ... Mi a ask God to guide her along the path while I stand by her."

Shenece told The STAR that having seen her father depending on dialysis for so many years, she was moved to help him.

"I feel confident in what I am doing," Shenece said. "The only thing that was going through my mind was to get my father off this machine because he has been on it for years, and I think he needs a break," she added.

Johnson works as a collection officer twice per week and he imagines that he may have some difficulty purchasing medication after his surgery.

"If I don't take the medication, then it makes no sense. The medication is the key. Whatever possibility can be done, I would be grateful," Johnson said.

To assist Easton Johnson, contact him at

1-876-584-4022. Donations may be made to bank account number 434975301 NCB Bay West, Montego Bay.