Bel, Beneficiado

We are very grateful...

In July 2018, I got The Call! I had waited 12 years for this day. An angel I still don’t know anything about donated me his/her liver, and by doing so gave me a second chance to live and see my daughter graduate high school this year. I am the recipient of a liver transplant at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. We are very grateful to my angel’s family who donated his/her liver when he/she passed away.

Thank you ! Gracias! I Merci ! I Grazie ! I Danke ! I Kiitos ! I Tack ! I Tak ! I Dankjewel ! I Arigato ! I Spasibo ! I Kozonom ! I Gracies ! I Efharisto! I Shieh ! I Todah ! I Shukran ! I dekuji ! I Dakujem ! I Mahalo!

For giving me the greatest gift.

www.facebook.com/belslittleliver
❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥❥

Meet Bel: Maintaining a Positive Spirit

Bel Kambach, who is currently living with stage 4 PBC, is the ultimate fighter. A single mom to a teenage daughter, her journey has not been easy. Her eyes are jaundiced, her feet unbearably itchy (hence the forks she carries everywhere she goes to ease the scratching) and her fatigue overwhelming, but each day she presses on with a vibrancy that can’t be denied. She is determined to help more people recognize and understand PBC, so they can be diagnosed faster and more smoothly than she was.

Back in 2009, Bel, who works as a college professor of geography during the school year and as a guest Geographer on luxury cruise lines during the summer, had been experiencing unusual itching and fatigue. She saw a doctor for these symptoms, and was initially misdiagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis. She tried 27 different medications for intractable pruritus before being correctly diagnosed with PBC three years later.