Valentines Day Romance

[Wattle]

A great Valentines Day Story  

Gift of life on a day of love
Natalie Tkaczuk Sikora
February 15, 2007 12:00am

VIV Grima gave her fiance the ultimate gift of love on Valentine's Day – one of her kidneys.

While most couples spent Tuesday night romancing, Viv went under the knife in a marathon operation at St Vincent's Hospital, as surgeons transplanted one of her kidneys into her partner Ray Rowbottom.
 
The operation was hailed a success, but the couple are yet to see each other. They have spent the past two nights separated by just one hospital room.

But there is no doubt each one knows how the other feels.

Just hours after the operation, Ray's uncle Kevin Wright, was shuttling love messages between the pair.

"Ray held my hand when he woke up, and had tears in his eyes," Kevin said.

"He said: `You tell her I love her and I will be marrying her as soon as I get out of here.'

"It was so emotional. She said she would give her life for him and would marry him tomorrow.

"He has a part of her in him now . . . that's more than love."

After Ray was moved from intensive care to Viv's floor yesterday, they exchanged text messages and cards.

In a musical card to Ray, Viv said she would give him the world if only she could.

"Instead I will give you all that is mine to give."

The couple had a glimpse of one another after Herald Sun photographer Craig Borrow snapped the pair in their separate hospital beds then showed them the pictures on a computer screen.

"I'm madly in love with him. He's my everything," said Viv, 39, after seeing Ray's picture.

"I just wanted him to live a life like normal people. Even if we weren't together I would have done it, because he's been my best friend for 20 years."

A very weak Ray also chocked back tears as he described how Viv gave him the greatest gift he had ever received.

"I love her so much. She's everything to me. Words cannot describe how I feel about what she has done," the 33-year-old said.

The couple grew up as family friends and have been lovers for eight months. They plan to get married next year.

Viv said Ray, a forklift driver, had struggled on dialysis for seven years after his kidneys failed.

"I felt so sorry for him. He's so kind-hearted, and I just wanted to see him happy," she said.

Ray was one of 12,000 patients in Australia with end-stage kidney failure who need dialysis treatment to keep them alive.

The director of nephrology at St Vincent's, Robyn Langham, said half of those patients were waiting for kidney transplants.

She said because of the shortage of organ donors, some patients would die waiting.

"It's an enormous gift of love, there's no doubt about it," Dr Langham said of Viv and Ray.

"And patients on kidney dialysis without a donor are always blown away by it."

ORGAN Donation Week kicks off on Sunday and is a reminder of our capacity to help others. Visit your local Medicare office or call 1800 777 203 to register with the Australian Organ Donor Register.