Hi Everyone ... My Name is Mark Whitmore
This isn’t easy to ask. Sometimes life puts us in a place where asking becomes the only way forward
I’ve got something to share with everyone that is not easy for me.
For some of you, it will be the first time you’ve heard about it. Some of you may already know a little about my kidney disease and my need to find a Living Kidney Donor. Very few know the whole story.
So here it goes…
Who Am I?
Imagine waking up one day feeling terribly sick, going to the doctor, and finding out you had a chronic, life-altering disease that needed immediate life-saving treatment. That’s exactly what happened to me in the Spring of 2025 when I learned I had kidney failure. My daily work and home life routine and activities came to a sudden, screeching halt.
Living everyday with kidney failure is a balancing act between dialysis treatments, fatigue, diminished energy and stamina and the quiet fear and anxiety of what tomorrow will bring. Dialysis keeps me alive, but it’s no way to live. It’s a tether to machines, to hospitals coupled with fear and uncertainty where the only guarantee is a life that will be cut short by kidney disease.
I am a happily married man of 35 years with two wonderful children. My wife Jeanine and I became college sweethearts when I was 19 years old. After Jeanine's graduation, she earned her Masters Degree in Social Work in Boston and I transferred schools to finish my last two years of college in Boston. We were married a few years later and remained in the Boston area during the beginning our professional careers.
After our son was born, Jeanine and I returned to the Northern New Jersey suburbs where I was raised and where our parents still lived so that my son could have a close relationship with both sets of grandparents and we could help our parents in their golden years. Jeanine and I were both raised in a close, family-oriented environment and wanted our parents to be a central aspect of raising our children. We were then blessed again a few years later with the birth or our daughter. Shortly afterward, I began a new professional chapter in my career working in Information Technology Operations at a large bank in New York City and started commuting round-trip from New Jersey to New York City for 3-4 hours per day.
During this time, I became an avid long-distance cyclist and incorporated biking into my daily commute by riding 10-20 miles per day along the scenic Hudson River Greenway to my office in Manhattan. Cycling within my daily commute into NYC was a highlight of each day for many years, embedding exercise, a long-held value of mine as a former marathoner (Boston) into my busy routine as a husband, dad and provider for my family.
Before I was diagnosed with kidney disease, the rhythms of my life and the roles I held were challenging but meaningful and fulfilling. Now, unfortunately, the structure of my life - built through hard work, humility and unwavering commitment to my family - has been upended by kidney failure.
Hobbies & Volunteer Work/Charities
- Rescue Dogs: Sylvie: 5-year old lab mix
- Long Distance Cycling
- Running (former Marathoner)
- Cooking & Developing New Recipes
- Leukemia and Lymphoma (volunteering and fundraising)
- Alzheimer’s Association (volunteering and fundraising)
The Beginning
In April 2025, I developed significant symptoms of extreme fatigue, nausea, vomiting, extreme itching and “brain fog”. After a visit to my doctor for a checkup and blood work, I was shocked to learn that I had developed acute kidney failure and was sent directly to the hospital for 8 days to begin emergency dialysis treatment to keep me alive. I was then discharged to outpatient dialysis on a schedule of three times per week for 4 hours per session. A few months later, my acute diagnosis was later determined to be chronic and would require lifelong dialysis due to my permanent kidney failure.
Dialysis was very debilitating for me and left me feeling extremely tired most of the day with very little energy and stamina. I also experienced frequent muscle spasms, nausea, headaches and body weakness. As a result, I had to take a medical leave of absence from work for 3 months and returned back at the end of July 2025. Due to related medical complications during that time, I was re-hospitalized on 2 separate occasions over the summer for nearly a week each time.
My kidney doctor encouraged me to begin the evaluation process to be a candidate for a Kidney Transplant at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center (Livingston, NJ) in June 2025. I was accepted by the Transplant Committee in late August 2025. I was later able to cross-register with Hackensack Hospital in NJ and am in the process of getting registered at NYU-Langone Health in Manhattan. Acceptance onto the Kidney Transplant List means waiting for a kidney from a deceased donor to become available with an average waiting list time of 3-7 years or finding a living kidney donor on your own. I was advised by my Transplant Team that finding a living kidney donor was the better and healthier option for a variety of reasons, especially for a younger and otherwise healthy person such as myself with many years left to live. A kidney from a living donor has a much lower chance of rejection, medical complications and infections along with a greater life expectancy of 15-25 years or more as opposed to 8-15 years on average with a kidney from a deceased donor. My health will continue to decline while waiting years for a deceased kidney donor.
My Current Situation
In August of 2025, I was able to transition to Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) at home in the evening rather than hemodialysis during the day at a dialysis center. Peritoneal Dialysis requires me to connect to a large machine every night for nearly 10 hours while my wife and I are sleeping. However, the treatment often interrupts our sleep throughout the night due to multiple alarms from complications. Dialysis is not a cure for kidney failure and has many short-term and long-term side effects with physical limitations and restrictions.
While I have been able to resume working, there are significant medical risks and challenges associated with Peritoneal Dialysis. Common side-effects include higher risk of infection (peritonitis), high blood sugar, weight gain, hernia, catheter complications and ineffective dialysis. Like hemodialysis, there is also a high morbidity rate for patients on Peritoneal Dialysis, both of which carry a 40% survival rate at 5 years. In addition, traveling away from home requires transporting a large array of medical equipment and supplies to continue treatment every night.
The reality of dealing with kidney failure and doing PD every night has resulted in me undergoing significant changes in my life. I still have limited energy and stamina and need to prioritize my activities each day. I have not been able to travel far distances that require an overnight stay and have been limited in seeing my children as they live out-of-state. I have had to give up long distance cycling, running and long walks with my wife due to diminished energy and stamina. I had also wanted to recently adopt a rescue dog, but was forced to put this aspiration on hold as it would be too physically challenging for me to keep up with the daily walks and playtime activities.
Developing kidney failure that requires Peritoneal Dialysis for nearly 10 hours every night to stay alive has had a deep and profound effect on my life. My overall health is excellent but living my life to the fullest is now restricted and limited due to my kidney failure. I miss all the healthy activities I used to enjoy as well as vacation and weekend trips with my wife, adult children, extended family and circle of friends. I am the main financial provider for my family and also provide care for my elderly mother who still lives in my childhood home a few minutes away. My wife, children and their significant others have been 100% supportive of me and have put their lives on hold to provide regular assistance to me since I developed kidney failure and started dialysis. While this is a labor of love, this has been hard for me personally because I have traditionally been the head of the household, caregiver and provider for the family.
Various family members and friends were all evaluated as potential living kidney donors and were found to be medically ineligible as donors which is why I need help in finding a living kidney donor outside of my immediate family and close friends.
Hospital transplant centers DO NOT help patients find living kidney donors and the responsibility solely relies on the individual in need of a kidney transplant to find a living donor on their own.
What Would I Do With The Gift Of Life
Becoming a Living Kidney Donor is one of the most selfless acts a person can make. It’s not just giving a part of yourself—it’s giving someone their life back. With one healthy kidney, a living donor could free me from dialysis, restore my energy, and give me the chance to live life again. To travel. To work. To dream of the future. To laugh without worry. To run like the wind. To one day hold my future grandchildren in my arms and watch them grow up. To simply live.
A Living Kidney Donor wouldn’t just be saving my life—it would mean restoring hope, rewriting a future, and becoming my miracle. If I were blessed to receive The Gift of Life of a new kidney from a Living Donor, it would dramatically improve the longevity and quality of my life in so many ways and enable me to resume all the healthy physical activities I used to enjoy. As a father, I look forward to the day of walking my daughter down the aisle and dancing with her on her wedding day. I want to look forward to becoming a grandfather and being a central figure to my grandchildren without the daily challenging side-effects and limitations of suffering with kidney failure and being dependent on dialysis. As someone who has previously lost a loved one to cancer and dementia, I want to continue to be a very active volunteer, contributor and fund-raiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the Alzheimer’s Association which are charities very dear to my heart. I also want to become involved with animal shelters and become an Advocate for rescuing dogs and cats that have been abused and neglected. Prior to becoming a dialysis patient and dealing with daily challenges, I had my heart set on adopting a rescue lab mix that my son and his wife ultimately decided to provide a loving home for as I became unable to do so. Serving the needs of others has always been very important to me and I want to become a beacon of inspiration to others as a Living Kidney Donor Advocate through various speaking engagements and fundraisers to educate and energize others to consider giving The Gift of Life. I also want to become a motivational leader to others in their search for a Living Kidney Donor and guide them through their journey.
Share My Story & Consider Getting Tested As A Donor At No Cost To You... It Can Potentially Save Your Own Life
I appreciate your time in reading my website. Please SHARE MY WEBSITE TO HELP ME FIND A LIVING DONOR with your friends, co-workers, family, colleagues, religious affiliations, organizations, etc. via word-of-mouth, e-mail and social media to spread the word that I need a kidney transplant and possibly consider getting tested yourself. Through everyone’s effort and kindness to help me, I am hopeful that someone will give me THE GIFT OF LIFE.
Living Donor Testimonials
Learn more about an incredible married couple from Wisconsin who both gave the Gift of Life through living kidney donation, returned to their healthy, active lifestyles, and have organized and completed multiple long distance cycling events to raise awareness about living organ donation and the dire need for donors for the thousands of people awaiting a kidney.
It all started with a chance encounter in a restaurant ....
The Organ Trail
The Organ Trail: Living Kidney Donors Mark and Lynn Scotch Share Their Story
Paired Exchange Testimonials
Paired Exchange is when an incompatible donor-recipient pair "exchanges or swaps" their kidneys with another incompatible donor-recipient pair resulting in both recipients receiving a compatible living kidney donor transplant. This process increases the recipient's probability of receiving a living kidney donor transplant sooner rather than depending upon finding their own direct match living kidney donor.
Benefits Of Getting Tested As A Potential Donor
- Health Evaluation & Medical Testing is covered by MY INSURANCE…. NO COST TO YOU.
- Testing evaluates your own health & underlying unknown issues such as Cancer, Heart Disease, Diabetes & Autoimmune Diseases, etc.
- Getting tested is NOT A COMMITMENT to donate…. You can change your mind any time.
- If you are eligible to donate but not a direct match, you can still be my donor through a Paired Swap Exchange where incompatible donor and recipient pairs are matched with another duo.