Updated 3:47 p.m. to include a word that had been ommitted from a quotation.

After Bill Mills learned he had kidney disease in mid-2007, he and his wife, Helen, struggled to find the best information about their options.

Now the retired Mission Viejo couple want to help others avoid those struggles.

They're teaming up with a retired ICU physician—himself a kidney transplant recipient—to present a free seminar on kidney disease and kidney donation at Saddleback Church on April 16.

A retired administrative assistant, Helen Mills said that the goal of the seminar is to provide information for those interested in donating a kidney and provide information and support to those who are suffering from kidney disease.

“We want to give them education, but we also want to give the hope,” said Helen, 62.

The couple's experience with kidney disease started about 3½ years ago, when Bill’s doctor found out that Bill’s kidneys weren’t functioning at full capacity.

The doctor ordered another test and determined that Bill had focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a syndrome that eventually leads to kidney failure.

Kidneys serve as a filter for the body, removing waste from the bloodstream. Without them, the body is susceptible to any number of infections and, eventually, death.

Bill said he "was devastated” when he heard the news.  

The 75-year-old retired Los Angeles Police Department detective and former head of security for Canon in Irvine said he’s always been in great health. The most serious surgery he's undergone was having his wisdom teeth removed. Even as he continues to battle the disease, he regularly exercises and keeps a detailed journal documenting his symptoms, medication and visits to doctors.

After the diagnosis, he registered at a local transplant center to get on the waiting list for a kidney.

And therein lies the problem that the couple are looking to correct with the new Saddleback ministry—because it wasn’t until later, Helen said, that they discovered the nearest transplant center might not be the best for their needs.

“We found, now, that there are reasons to do a lot of research on what transplant center you select," she said. “Over that 3½ years of learning more about his options, we both realized that you have to dig to get information.”

After telling friends and relatives about Bill’s disease, the couple found a number of people willing to donate a kidney. Eventually they met Jeff Allen, a Saddleback Church attendee who was willing to help them out and seemed to be a perfect fit.

But the local transplant center wouldn’t accept Allen as a donor in part because of concerns about his health.

That’s when progress for Bill sort of stopped, Helen said, until about a year-and-a-half later, when they met Dr. Mark Wedel.

A retired intensive-care-unit physician, a recent kidney transplant patient and a Saddleback churchgoer, Wedel had in mid-2010 proposed a program at Saddleback Church for kidney patients and organ donors—a mere month after Bill and Helen had pitched a similar idea.

Not only did Wedel share the same passion for kidney-disease sufferers, but he also convinced the couple to keep going forward with Allen and get him evaluated by another transplant center.

Because of Wedel’s interaction around November 2010, Allen is undergoing more tests and will, hopefully, be approved, the couple said.

Many people don’t realize that different transplant centers have different requirements for accepting donors, said Wedel, who earned his M.D. from Johns Hopkins University.

Wedel received a kidney donation in August 2010 from one of his daughter’s friends and called it an “extraordinary experience” that “you simply can’t describe.”

Taking lessons from his own transplant, Wedel said he hopes to shed light on the issue so that people know what their options are.  

As is the case with Bill and Helen Mills, it’s something his faith urges him to do. Talking about the ministry in an interview, Wedel, a Temecula resident who also serves as consultant for biotech companies, quoted the Bible.

“Christ said, ‘I was thirsty, and you gave me water,’ ” he said. “He was talking about back then, 2,000 years ago, when it was a really big deal to get water. [If he were speaking now], I’m convinced that Christ would have said, ‘I needed a kidney, and you gave me one.’ ”

Wedel worked at Scripps hospital in La Jolla and urged Bill to get registered in the San Diego region, where there is a shorter wait list for kidney patients. But he said he's not trying to promote one hospital or one form of treatment over another.

He said he wants to provide information because he’s “been on both sides of the knife”—as a kidney surgeon and patient.

Wedel recommends that people who need kidneys get themselves listed on as many organ transplant registries as possible to increase the chance of finding a matching donor.

As for Helen, what helped lead her to hold the upcoming seminar was her husband’s disease, a chance meeting with an old friend, a CBS news segment and the volunteer work she and her husband do at Saddleback Church.

Over the course of their struggle with kidney disease, the couple—who volunteer to pray for people in Saddleback’s Prayer Garden ministry—said they found a number of churchgoers who were also facing kidney disease.

Saddleback led Helen to reconnect with longtime friend Sharon Rynders-Fill, who, it turned out, now works at One Legacy, an organization that coordinates organs transfers between deceased donors and living patients.  That’s when the idea for the seminar began to crystallize.

Seeing a CBS news story about a kidney registry further inspired Helen to look into starting a ministry for kidney disease sufferers.

A kidney registry links willing donors with compatible patients. The CBS story identified how sometimes “chains” of donations can start, wherein in one person donates to a patient and the patient can’t donate, but he or she inspires someone else to donate.

And, aside from the information and support they hope to provide, that’s what Wedel, Rynders-Fill and the Bill and Helen Mills hope to come out of the seminar: a chain of people saving lives.

She says that finding Wedel—another Saddleback congregant with similar goals as hers—was a sign from above that she should start the ministry.

"I'm praying big-time that God will help," Helen said.

Dealing with kidney disease has been a challenge for Bill, but he says his faith and support from his wife have helped him through it.

“Helen’s my rock,” he said. “Well, God’s my rock, and Helen's my …”

“Pebble,” Helen said, chiming in.

Helen's advice for anyone suffering from kidney disease? Keep investigating options.

“Don’t assume that when someone tells you "no," there’s not someone else out there who would say "yes,” Helen said. “You have to keep pursuing.”

Bill started dialysis about a month ago. 

Bill and Helen, who have been married 11 years, say that without the terrible news of his kidney disease 3½ years ago, they would never have seen the need in their church and their surrounding community. That’s why God is great, Bill says.

“He takes our hurts and turns them into good,” Bill said.  

For more information on the National Kidney Registry, click here.

You can read the flier for the event by clicking the links above. The seminar begins 10 a.m. Saturday, April 16, at the portable room 401 at Saddleback Church Campus, 1 Saddleback Pkwy.

Helen says it doesn’t matter if a person has any faith whatsoever. All are welcome at the event.

For more information you can e-mail Helen at sparkymiss@cox.net