To see if you might be a potential kidney donor for Chelsea Roman, visit the Facebook page, “Find Chelsea Roman a Kidney” or call 530-913-3025.

For a long time, Chelsea Roman didn’t tell anyone about her health because she didn’t want to burden people. But today she is ready to spread the word far and wide, because it just might save her life.

The day of her birth, 32 years ago, was a traumatic one. Chelsea was born two months early and wasn’t breathing. Weighing just three pounds, she spent her first two months in an incubator, and for the first month she had no kidney function. At one month, one of her kidneys started working and at three months she was finally able to go home.

But to this day, she has never had more than 25 percent kidney function.

Last week, however, she learned that function has now dropped to an alarming 11 percent and she has been put on two donor lists because she is such a rare match. Not only is her blood type, B, more rare, the transfusion she had at birth means that her antigens may attack a transplanted kidney. For this reason, roughly 85 percent of type B donors would not be a match.

That’s why Chelsea and her husband, Mark, feel they are in a race against the clock for a match. Family members have tested negative and the wait time for a deceased donor can be three to six years, she said. Also, her life expectancy could be reduced if the donor is deceased, or she may have to get a second transplant down the road. What she needs now, today, she says, is a live donor.

“Things are pretty serious,” said Mark. “It’s hard for Chelsea to ask for help — she’s very bubbly and you would never know she has an issue. But she’s been through a lot in her life.”

As a toddler, Chelsea’s parents noticed she wasn’t responding, and at age 3 she was fitted with hearing aids. At 5, her father passed away from cancer and her mother moved Chelsea and her sister, Halley, to Grass Valley, where she attended Alta Sierra, Lyman Gilmore and Nevada Union High schools, graduating in 2003.

At age 24, Chelsea lost her mother, Lisa Miglietta, a well-known Nevada County realtor, to ovarian cancer. As a result, Chelsea opted to take the BRCA gene test and discovered she had a higher chance of developing breast or ovarian cancer. In 2012, she had a double mastectomy because she knew her lower kidney function could not sustain a serious illness. She also had her ovarian tubes tied because she was told a pregnancy could also endanger her kidneys.

Despite more than her share of life challenges, Chelsea is known to her husband, stepfather Darwin Leek and extended family as always looking on the bright side. That’s why her phone is always on, by her side, waiting for a call with potential donors at UC Davis Medical Center or a hospital in Seattle.

“I have my phone with me 24 hours a day — it never leaves me,” she said. “If I get that call, I’ll have to be at Davis for flying to Seattle in a matter of hours.”

One of life’s greatest gifts, said Chelsea, was meeting Mark. It made all the other stuff not seem so bad.

“We met on a dating website and he’s been the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” she said. “We’re coming up on our second wedding anniversary.”

“We clicked right away — we’re meant for each other,” said Mark. “Despite all of these struggles, such as her kidneys and needing a hearing aid, she’s always smiling. That’s why I love her. But her condition is getting pretty serious.”

Fortunately, Chelsea has not yet had to go on dialysis, but with her kidney function currently at 11 percent, her time may be getting near. In desperate hopes of finding a match before she has to start dialysis, a Facebook page, “Find Chelsea Roman a Kidney,” has been set up.

“To the people out there who might consider donating a kidney, I would be forever grateful,” she said. “I don’t know how I could ever repay that person — the gift of life is the best thing you can give anyone.”

To contact Staff Writer Cory Fisher, email her at Cory@theunion.com.