A New Brunswick man on a waiting list for a kidney transplant says he hopes to speed up finding a donor by posting an ad — on his car
Dan McLaughlin of Riverview, N.B., says he’s been on the donor list for over a year. He and his wife, Pat, hope that the unique measure of creating a billboard on wheels will help solve their problem.
“He is my life and we are not ready to give up,” Pat said.
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McLaughlin’s health has gone downhill in the last year as his renal failure has advanced.
At the moment, his kidneys only function at about 10 per cent and he’s in desperate need of a transplant.
“I can’t survive without dialysis so I do dialysis at home every day,” McLaughlin said.
That’s why they’ve now taken the unusual step of creating and posting a decal it on their cars with the goal creating awareness about kidney disease and inspire more people to become a donor. The decal asks people if they could share their spare kidney.
“It was a friend of mine in the States who did this. He had a truck and he ended up getting a kidney that way,” MacLaughlin said.
According to MacLaughlin, there are 4,000 people in Canada waiting for a kidney transplant. He said he hopes that others will benefit from his actions.
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They’ve had the decals up for less than 48 hours and are already getting texts and calls from people responding to the billboard on wheels. They’ve also had hundreds of shares on social media.
“So the word is getting around,” Pat said.
Although they have yet to receive a call from a doctor, they remain hopeful. They say they both plan on hitting the road every day to spread the message.
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