How far would you go for love? Wayne Winters, a 74-year-old man from Utah, has been walking kilometers each day in search of a kidney donor for his wife of 26 years, Deanne.
Winters began his journey on the streets near his home, wearing a white sandwich board with red letters that read, “Need Kidney 4 Wife.” The sign also notes her blood type, A-, and his contact information.
“I don’t walk real fast,” Winters told Fox 13.
“I’m trying to get a kidney for my wife. [She] has stage five kidney failure. She’s on dialysis and she doesn’t like it. It’s horrible…I felt like I needed to do something.”
On the back of the sandwich board, passersby will see another message that reads, “1,000 Kidneys Needed Utah/Idaho.” And, as unfortunate as it is, he’s 100 percent right. According to the National Kidney Foundation of Utah and Idaho, more than 97,000 patients are currently waiting for a kidney transplant.
Meanwhile, in Australia, according to Organ Donation Australia, the average waiting time for a kidney transplant from a deceased donor is over three years.
Winters credits his sandwich board idea to Larry Swilling, a South Carolina man who walked the streets in 2012, searching for a kidney donor for his wife Jimmy Sue.
While Winters admits it’s been hard seeing Deanne in so much pain, he says the public’s response has been overwhelming — so much so that he was approached on the very first day of his walk by a hopeful man who stopped to say he would see if he was a match for Deanne.
Now, Winters is determined to keep searching until they’ve found a positive match.
“After I get a kidney I will have my wife back the way she was, normal, helping people, loving people; she likes to serve other people,” Winters said.
We wish Wayne and Deanne the very best in their search!
This article first appeared on Woman’s World.
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