Would you go under the knife for a friend? This PNNL worker did

Mary Frances Lembo has a new scar next to her belly button.

It’s dark red and it’s not small — at least a few inches long.

But it’s not something Lembo is afraid to talk about or even show off, if the occasion fits.

It’s something she’s proud of.

In June, Lembo donated a kidney to longtime friend Dawn Johnson, who was in dire need because of kidney disease.

The transplant was a success, and both women now are back home and doing well.

For Lembo, the donation was a chance to help her friend — to do something big and meaningful.

For Johnson, it was life-changing. After years of declining health and months of dialysis, she has her color back.

She’s not in a fog of fatigue.

“I feel better than I have in years,” the Richland woman said.

The Herald has been chronicling the friends’ story since 2017.

Before her transplant, Johnson was struggling with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, which affects the kidney’s filtering units.

In her case, it was caused by a genetic defect — she was born with only one kidney.

She needed a new one.

Lembo had first considered becoming a living donor when a family friend needed a transplant, but in that case she wasn’t a match.

Then she learned about Johnson’s situation.

The friends have different blood types and at first it didn’t appear a direct donation would work. So instead, they pursued a “paired donation” in which non-matching pairs are linked with other non-matching pairs or become part of a larger donation chain.

That gave Johnson a better chance of finding a suitable kidney than if she waited on her own.

But this past spring, the friends learned that Lembo’s kidney would work for Johnson — Lembo has a kind of type A blood that can donate to people, like Johnson, who are type O.

The transplant happened June 27 at University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle.

Both women were out of the hospital within a few days and on the road to recovery.

Lembo isn’t quite back to running yet — something she did frequently before — but she feels good.

Johnson does, too. She’ll likely take medication the rest of her life, but Lembo’s kidney means freedom, normalcy and health.

Lembo’s decision to be a living donor isn’t one a lot of people make.

The vast majority of transplants are through deceased donors, even though most people on the waiting list need kidneys or livers, which can come from living donors. About 115,000 people in the U.S. currently are waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant.

For Lembo, donating a kidney meant dreaded blood draws and needle sticks, a major operation and so on.

But it was all worth it, she said.

“I want to be a living organ donor advocate. So many people need kidneys, and it’s a spare. Share the spare,” she said.

She and Johnson have been friends for years, bonding through walks with their dogs, horseback riding and other fun.

Johnson is a teacher at Rowena Chess Elementary School in Pasco.

Lembo is a research librarian for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland. While she and Johnson met in the Tri-Cities, Lembo since has moved to Michigan, while still working remotely for the lab.

The transplant experience has drawn the two friends even closer.

They text and call frequently. They finish each other’s sentences.

Lembo was in town recently for work, and the friends got together at Johnson’s house.

They laughed and laughed. They shared pictures from the hospital.

They explained why they call the donated kidney “Pancha” — it’s a nod to an old nickname for Lembo.

Lembo showed her scar.

She also showed a necklace Johnson gave her on the eve of the transplant — a jade stone shaped like a kidney bean.

And Johnson showed the necklace she received from Lembo. It’s silver with a heart and kidney shape.

She loves it.

She loves Lembo.

“When I woke up after surgery, for the first time ever — and I’ve had lots of surgeries — I went, ‘ahh,’ ” she said, sighing with relief.

A kidney, a second chance, a new lease on life — “it’s her gift to me,” Johnson said.