By Amy Morenz, Staff writer

Sunday, April 9, 2006 1:10 AM CDT

Every time Joan Saltsberg gets out of bed, she thanks the family who donated the kidney that keeps her digestive juices flowing.

Saltsberg, 56, is a walking testimony to the power of organ transplants.

Not only did she donate her own kidney to her sister Ellen Roesch, who later died, she and another sister, Marcia Weinreb, are both living with donated kidneys today.

Saltsberg still has a close relationship with her donated kidney 16 years after her transplant. She calls it "Kenny" and has a birthday party every five years featuring a kidney-shaped cake. She and the widow who donated the kidney cried when they met.

"It was a very emotional and tearful moment," she said. "Even today, when I wake up, I tell Kenny to keep on working. I wouldn't be here if I had to live with dialysis and its complications. Three of four people in my family have died from kidney disease."

April is National Organ Tissue Donor Awareness Month, and Saltsberg readily tells the story of how one organ can make a difference in a quality of life. One organ and tissue donor can save and enhance up to 50 lives, the Southwest Transplant Alliance says.

Because she gained a kidney, Saltsberg now schedules surgery at Baylor Regional Medical Center of Plano to give back.

Saltsberg knows all too well the future of patients that will need kidney dialysis. She has lived with the process, and she has seen her two sisters struggle with dialysis.

When Saltsberg's father, Jerry died, no one knew he had a kidney disease known as familial glomerulonephritis, a chronic progressive renal disease that runs in families. Jerry, a former photographer for The Ed Sullivan Show, died when Saltsberg was just 6 years old.

With three girls in the family, Roesch, the middle daughter, was the first to learn she had the disease. Just 22 years old and on her honeymoon, she started "blowing up" when her kidneys could not process urine correctly.

"She was propped up in bed and twice her size when she came back from her honeymoon," Saltsberg remembers. "They put her on dialysis."

Saltsberg did not hesitate when she was asked if she could donate a kidney to her sister. After backpacking through Europe, she donated her organ at age 21. Saltsberg had to have a rib removed to give her kidney. Today, kidney donations are much less painful because they are removed by laproscopic surgery.