‘Need kidney 4 wife:’ Husband seeks stranger to save her life -- because it worked before
Wayne Winters’ wife needs a new kidney and he is to determined to find one for her.
The Utah man has taken to walking around his Farr West neighborhood wearing a sandwich board to spread the word about his wife’s stage 5 kidney failure, according to Fox 13.
“She's on dialysis and she doesn't like it, it's horrible,” Winters told Fox 13. “I felt like I needed to do something.”
He hopes to attract the attention of someone willing to donate a kidney to save his wife.
"He just decided, 'I'm going to get you a kidney. I don't like to see you the way you're feeling,'" Winters’ wife told WTHR. She has to undergo dialysis three times a week.
According to the National Kidney Foundation, more than 101,000 of the 123,000 people awaiting organ donation in the U.S. need a kidney. Only 17,000 kidney donations are made each year, which means 12 people die every day because they don’t get a transplant in time.
Winters told WTHR he got the sandwich board idea when he saw the story of a South Carolina man who used one to attract a kidney donor for his wife.
South Carolina resident Larry Swilling attracted national attention in 2012 for his campaign to get his wife Jimmie Sue a kidney, according to CBS. Neither he nor anyone in the family was a match for his wife, so he wore a sandwich board around town that said “Need kidney 4 wife.”
The media coverage caught the eye of Kelly Patrick of Virginia, who read about it on Yahoo News, according to USA Today. Patrick found out she was a match and donated a kidney in 2013. Jimmie Sue Swilling died earlier this year at age 80 of complications from Parkinson’s disease, her family told USA Today, and Patrick said she was glad she had helped Jimmie Sue enjoy several more years of life with her family.
According to the National Kidney Foundation, it is becoming more common for people to donate to strangers.
Winters told Fox 13 he likes to walk around with his sandwich board during rush hour, because it gives more people an opportunity to read his sign. Deborah Morgan Hansen said in a Facebook post that she passed Winters with his sign and returned to talk to him.
“I cried at him like a weirdo and told him I thought that what he was doing was beautiful,” Hansen wrote on Facebook. “If you’ve ever considered being an kidney donor maybe this could help push you towards getting qualified. You could even call Wayne. He’s a sweet, funny man who wants to help his wife.”
So far, Winters’ wife has nearly found a match three times, according to WTHR.
"I just have hope and faith that it will come through because I have a lot of living left to do," she told WTHR.
If you can help, Winters can be contacted at 801-675-0278.
This story was originally published October 21, 2017 at 5:52 PM with the headline "‘Need kidney 4 wife:’ Husband seeks stranger to save her life -- because it worked before."