(L-R) Erin and Breanna in hospital, and (L-R) Breanna and Erin happy and healthy today (Picture: Instagram @teambemore)
Welcome to Soul Mates, Metro.co.uk’s weekly friendship series, where friends share the stories of how they met.
Erin Francis was just five-years-old when she started complaining of joint pain. A trip to the hospital led to a diagnosis of HSP, a disease where the capillaries become inflamed and damaged.
Her parents were told that HSP could potentially cause kidney issues down the line and, when she was 12-years-old, she started getting struck down with UTIs.
Erin, 31, from Philadelphia, USA, says: ‘Doctors confirmed I had some type of kidney issue – but they didn’t really know what. From then, I was monitored once every four months. I was never told that I would need a transplant one day.’
As far as Erin was concerned, she was in good health. Aged 24, she married her partner, Rich, and the pair were ready to start their lives together.
Breanna felt she was ‘meant to be’ Erin’s donor (Picture: Instagram @teambemore)
But just a month after her wedding in June 2016, she went in for a routine check up and everything changed. Erin’s blood pressure was extremely high as were the creatinine levels in her blood – creatinine is waste product that should be filtered out by the kidneys.
Erin says: ‘I was sent to get an emergency biopsy and that’s when my world turned upside down. I was told my kidneys were so scarred and shrunken they looked like the size of walnuts. I needed to be put on dialysis and on a transplant list as soon as possible.
‘I was 24, I’d just got married, I never, ever, thought something like this was going to happen to me. I had no idea I was even sick, I had no symptoms.
‘I just remember doing a lot of crying, praying and asking, “Why me?”‘
In the months that followed Erin had dialysis via a catheter twice a day, every single day.
‘Between June and September, my health was declining. I had a lot of trouble breathing and intense swelling in my legs and ankles – I couldn’t even walk up the stairs in my house.
‘Dialysis definitely helped to improve my quality of life, but ultimately I was on borrowed time. I was living via a machine.’
Desperate for a transplant, Erin’s family were tested, as were her closest friends, but no one was a match.
The girls met for the first time at a charity run (Picture: Instagram @teambemore)
It was Erin’s husband, Rich, who took their plight to Facebook, sharing a post looking for donors. Erin says: ‘I was reluctant to put my story out there, but we were running out of options.’
It was this post that Breanna Sipple, 30, saw while scrolling on her phone, lying in bed one night.
She says: ‘You see so many things online – lots of them sad – but you don’t always feel connected or like you need to take action. But when I read about Erin, even thought she was a stranger, I just had this overwhelming feeling that I was going to help her, that I was her match.
‘It’s hard to describe, but I was crying and was just like, “I’m this person’s donor.”‘
Breanna says that she didn’t know anything about organ donation before reading the post. ‘I’d never had any surgery, and I’m scared of needles,’ she laughs.
‘But that night, I called my mum to ask her what my blood type is. She told me I was O+ just like Erin – I was hysterical, it was confirmation that I needed to do this.’
Breanna began the process to get tested, but not everyone was as enthusiastic.
Brenna felt certain she was meant to be Erin’s donor (Picture: Instagram @teambemore)
She says: ‘My mum and boyfriend, Nicholas, weren’t really surprised – I see so much hate in the world and I’m always trying to fundraise or make a difference. But my dad was very worried. I’m the baby of the family, and I think it scared him.’
And during the process – which Breanna documented online via video vlogs – Erin was none the wiser.
‘Everything is kept completely separate,’ explains Breanna. ‘At this point, I hadn’t made contact with Erin at all.’
But after six months of testing, Breanna received devastating news. ‘I was turned down because they thought I had high blood pressure,’ she says. ‘It was so frustrating because I knew my blood pressure was spiking when the doctors took the readings purely because hospitals make me anxious.’
Heartbroken, Breanna recorded a video diary. ‘I just got a phone call that I’m unable to be the organ donor,’ she said in the video. ‘I’ve got so many emotions.’
It was this video that eventually found it’s way to Erin. She says: ‘I still think about that video to this day. I couldn’t believe how passionate she was, she cared so much and she didn’t even know me!’
They said they were ‘instant best friends’ (Picture: Instagram @teambemore)
Erin knew she had to get in touch with Breanna, and the pair soon spoke on the phone. Breanna explains: ‘We were instantly best friends. It’s hard to describe, but we just had an immediate connection.
‘Erin was so emotional and grateful, and while at the time I didn’t think I could be her donor, I knew I was meant to be in her life.’
From then on, the pair began chatting every day. They finally met at a charity walk, raising awareness of organ donation, in April 2017.
‘We were so nervous to meet each other!’ says Breanna. ‘But we’d already built this incredible friendship, and we just hugged and cried. I think we just saw ourselves in each other.’
In the months that followed, Erin moved her care to another hospital. It was medics there that suggested testing Breanna again. ‘I had no idea I had another shot,’ says Breanna. ‘But we started the process again and I wore a 24 hour blood pressure monitor which proved my levels were fine. Within one month, we got the green light.
‘My transplant coordinator told me, but not Erin, so I was able to surprise her. I made a sign that said “Officially… your donor” and FaceTimed her with it.
The sign which Breanna made for Erin (Picture: Instagram @teambemore)
‘She was a mess when she saw it! It was so sweet. It all came together perfectly.’
The pair underwent their surgeries on 12 September, 2017. Breanna says: ‘When I got to the hospital, Erin was already there and we just ran over to each other and hugged, all the nurses were crying.
‘I went into surgery first. I’m normally so scared of needles but I was just so calm.
‘The next thing I knew I was waking up in the recovery room asking for Erin. They told me she was in surgery and I just had to wait.’
The surgeries were a success (Picture: Instagram @teambemore)
The next day, after two successful surgeries, the girls were reunited. Erin says: ‘Breanna actually walked to room to see me. It was an emotional reunion. She completely saved my life and gave me a new fresh start.’
Both Erin and Breanna recovered well from surgery and now, almost six years on from the transplant, they’re still best friends.
Breanna adds: ‘We talk all the time, and our families are really close. When Erin got pregnant, I found out the gender first – she got her doctor to give me a note to say she was having a girl.
‘We’re just always there for each other.’
The pair have also started an Instagram page, Team Be More, which serves as a resource for potential living donors and recipients. They even have the words ‘Team Be More’ tattooed on their forearms.
Breanna with her daughter and Breanna, on their fifth kidney-versary (Picture: Instagram @teambemore)
And every year the pair mark their kidney-versary. ‘We take a picture with a balloon of the number of years that have passed, and we go out to dinner with her family,’ says Breanna.
‘I feel like my life didn’t really start until I decided to become an organ donor.’
Erin adds: ‘Breanna’s my person, my hero, the best person I’ve ever known.’
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