Originally from California, Catherine Mazur has lived in North Carolina for the past ten years and is a proud mom of two boys. A lover of fitness and horseback riding, Catherine leads a busy life, traveling the globe for her work and supporting causes near and dear to her heart. But in 2019, her world paused for something much bigger—donating a kidney to a friend in need.
“I sat on the board of directors for Western Wake Crisis Ministry, and the President, Deb Purks, had polycystic kidney disease,” said Catherine. “I knew Deb for a while, but she was very private. When I went to run a marathon for the AIDS Foundation, I called for donors, and she sent out an email saying, ‘hey, if anybody has it in their heart to donate a kidney, let me know.’ At first, I didn’t even really understand what the kidneys did. But I thought, “we have two, so why not look into it?”
Despite having two young kids, Catherine pursued testing to see if she’d be a match. “Deb was just a short time away from dialysis–she’d been suffering for a while,” she said. “I thought, let me see if I can help. There are a ton of hoops you have to jump through to see if you can actually donate. You have to be a blood match, first and foremost. I was, and we both have rare blood. And then you have to be a tissue match, which doesn’t have to match 100%, because being a perfect match for tissue is like one in a million. I was that one in a million.”
Leading up to surgery, Catherine remained grounded and clear in her purpose. After it was confirmed she was a match, she sat down with Deb and had a much needed heart-to-heart.
“I remember exactly where I was when I called her. We were silently crying together,” said Catherine. “She said, ‘Catherine, I don’t want you to feel pressured at any point to do this.’ She was really worried about that. I told her that she didn’t have to worry about me feeling like I was being guilted into it. I said, ‘I want us to celebrate this, because this is amazing. This brings hope. I think that really helped her.”
Towards the end of the testing process at UNC, Catherine received devastating news. Due to a rare anatomical issue, the doctors said the surgery would be too risky.
“I called Deb, who was on a cruise at the time,” recalled Catherine. “I told her listen, this is not the end, we’re going to figure this out. Deb said she was going to call Duke, and while she was still on the cruise, we transferred all of my information from UNC to Duke and I ended up meeting with somebody on their team. They got all the tests in, took a look at everything, and said ‘ok, let’s do it.’”
In February 2019, the transplant took place. While recovery was difficult—Catherine went from being a CrossFitter and heavyweight lifter to struggling with fatigue and post-surgical pain—she rebounded. Within a year, she was deadlifting 300 pounds again.
And Deb? She’s thriving. She runs 5Ks, hikes mountains, and takes road trips with her husband.
“She could have lived on dialysis, but that’s not really living,” Catherine said. “It’s about giving someone quality of life.”
Today, both Deb and Catherine remain deeply connected. Catherine has never once regretted her decision to donate and says the “gift went both ways.”
“Life is precious,” she said. “Now I care less about the small things and more about the real meaningful things. When you are grounded in that, life has a lot of meaning. You see the beauty in everything. It’s a gift.”
To learn more about UNC’s living donor program, click here!