“I need to save my mother’s life, but I can’t. I really need help.”

That is how Madison resident Jessica Giannone began writing in a plea to her friends and her community. Giannone’s mother, Kathy, was recently diagnosed with a debilitating disease affecting her liver that will require a transplant from a living donor.

If she’s not able to find a donor soon, the disease will be fatal.

Giannone and the rest of the family have been doing everything they can to spread the word, to find a willing match for the beloved family matriarch, who she described as a relentlessly selfless person.

“She does so much for everyone, and she holds our family together. Now, the tables have turned,” Giannone wrote.

The hope is to have a donor set and a procedure scheduled for May or June, according to Giannone, though the timing is “ultimately up to the donor.”

The family scheduled an information session with a living donor and recipient, social worker, and doctors for April 5 to share what the experience will be like.

Having started the campaign only about two weeks ago, Giannone and her family have worked hard to get the word out. Her initial Facebook post was a deeply passionate letter detailing her mother’s long history of caregiving, including taking in a man who Giannone referred to as the family’ “unofficial grandpa” while raising three kids and a grandson.

The family has also fought through other tragedies recently, always led by her mom, according to Giannone.

“She has organized more funerals in the past few years than anyone should in a lifetime, constantly putting everyone else in her life before herself,” Giannone wrote.

The donor would need to be bloody type O negative or B negative, in good health, and age 18 to 55.

The Facebook page, Save Kathy that the family put together had about 300 likes as of April 1.

“After a year of so much tragedy and death, you would literally be saving someone’s life. Someone who matters more than I can put into words,” Giannone wrote. “You would be a hero.”

For more information, visit the Facebook page atwww.facebook.com/SaveKathy.