An Edmonton community is rallying to reunite two sisters in Canada, in an effort to save both their lives.

Janet Machtoub is in desperate need of a kidney transplant, and currently requires nightly dialysis treatments that last nine hours. The longer a transplant is delayed, the more her health is in jeopardy.

"We don't know what will happen on a day-to-day basis," said Machtoub's husband, Houssam.

Machtoub does have a potential donor: Her sister Layla. However, Layla is halfway across the world, living in a tent in rural Lebanon.

Layla and her four grown children have become refugees after her husband and eldest son died in conflict-plagued Syria. Layla wants bring her family to Canada, particularly because she fears if they stay in the Middle East, her son could be forced into the Syrian Army.

After word of Machtoub's plight spread, members of her community in Edmonton have rallied to reunite the two sisters in Canada.

The city's Mennonite Central Committee has stepped in to file the necessary paperwork with Citizenship and Immigration Canada's refugee program. But it may be a long and complicated process.

"We are looking at a one-year turn around," the organization's program director, Orlando Vasquez, told CTV News.

"(But) the government has promised to reduce the time, and they hope to do it six months," Vasquez added.

An anonymous donor has also pledged to help out the family, by offering to give Machtoub's sister and her family $10,000 if they are accepted into the country.

And since a kidney transplant could give Machtoub a 95 per cent chance at a healthier life, bringing her sister and her family to Canada could save not just one, but several lives.

"It gives me a little bit of hope for her and for me: To get the kidney transplant and for her to come here and be safe with her children," said Machtoub, who has waited 15 years for a kidney transplant.

Last month, the Conservatives announced that they would cut red tape and accelerate the pace at which Syrian and Iraqi refugee applications are processed.

So far, Canada has accepted 2,500 Syrians since the federal government opened its doors to refugees from the country in 2013.

With a report from CTV's medical specialist Avis Favaro and producer Elizabeth St. Philip