Community donates car to Guilford County deputy battling kidney failure

A donated car reached Guilford County courthouse deputy Rajanique Austin as she keeps working in Greensboro while managing stage 5 kidney failure and nightly dialysis. The vehicle, funded through a GoFundMe campaign, gives Austin a more dependable way to get to work, medical appointments and treatment.

Austin serves as a courthouse deputy for the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office. She has continued showing up on the job even as she searches for a living kidney donor and faces the demands of a condition that began with extreme fatigue and shortness of breath weeks before her diagnosis.

Stage 5 kidney failure is the most severe stage of chronic kidney disease and typically requires dialysis or a transplant to sustain life. Austin has been balancing that reality with the routines of county work, doctor visits and the nightly treatments that keep her going.

Coworkers have rallied around her as the burden has grown, helping draw attention to her need for a donor and to the practical costs that come with a major medical crisis. The car donation addresses one of the most immediate pressures: reliable transportation when treatment cannot wait and work still has to be done.

Austin’s case has become a public reminder of what serious illness can mean for local government employees and their families once the spotlight fades. For a deputy who works inside the courthouse in Greensboro, the strain is not only medical. It reaches into the daily logistics of getting to treatment, staying employed and keeping household life steady while waiting for a match that could change everything.