March of Love

Students at Ashley River Creative Arts Elementary School in West Ashley are welcoming the community to come May 17 and march for a “princess of smiles” who needs a live kidney transplant.
“The March for Mary Ashley” will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the school, and will include staff, students, and members of the community marching in her honor. Students have been fund-raising, and the Charleston Battery men’s professional soccer club will join with other organizations for the march.
The march will be the culmination of month-long school efforts to raise money for expenses associated with her illness.
Nine-year-old Mary Ashley Barbot has already had a kidney transplant, but her body is rejecting it, according to her principal Cathie Middleton. She needs another live liver transplant, and the school and her peers are committed to helping better the odds.
Middleton said she hasn’t seen Mary Ashley much this year, because the special needs student has been homebound for much of the year due to illness, not to mention trips to the hospital.
“This little girl could be the poster child for smiling,” said Middleton. “When she’s here, she’s our little magnet, drawing people to here, who loves to say hello and take things to people.”
Middleton said the money will go to help pay down some of the family’s medical bills, as well as improve the existing playground at MUSC’s Children’s Hospital. “Kidney transplants are not cheap,” said the principal.
And they’re fairly rare, too. Mary Ashley has an approximately 100 to one chance of finding a donor match, according to science.
Stacy Sipple, the live donor transplant coordinator at MUSC, said that potential donors have already come forward through word of mouth, but more are needed. Those interested in becoming screened to become a potential donor can call 1-800-277-8687, hit option #4, and then option #3.
Those wishing to take a more immediate interest can follow the brave little girl at www.maryashley.org.