BONDURANT, Iowa — Anna Harlow found out the week of her wedding that she needed to start dialysis due to kidney failure.

“I got a phone call saying hey you are going to start dialysis not too long after your wedding we’re going to get you through Saturday,” Harlow said.

After months on dialysis, Harlow was placed on the organ transplant list which can take three to five years to find a donor. However, Harlow would find a match much sooner, her own mother.

“When Iowa City called me and said we were a match I just then everything felt like it was okay now she’s got a pathway to wellness and I was just so very grateful. And they said when can you do it and I said yesterday as soon as you can,” Sheri Fogarty, Harlow’s mother, said.

Dr. David Axelrod, a Transplant Surgeon at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and the surgeon who performed Harlow’s transplant surgery, said that Sheri’s donation added years to Harlow’s life.

“There is no doubt that Anna will live markedly longer because of this kidney transplant,” Dr. Axelrod said.

You can sign up to be a living organ donor on the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics’ website.