NORFOLK, Va. — There are over 2,000 kids across the country on the national transplant list looking to receive a kidney and one man is traveling across the country to bring awareness to the need of living donors.
Brian Martindale with, Kidneys For Kids, has been driving across the country trying to get 100 people to match and become a living kidney donor for kids.
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Martindale travels to hospitals to tell his story while also trying to highlight the need for a child in the community.
Back in 2013, Martindale said he was reading his local newspaper when he saw a story about a 10-year-old girl needing a kidney.
"We tested a couple of weeks after I read the story and we matched as if we were siblings, we had never met and we lived four blocks apart," Martindale said.
At the Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters (CHKD) in Norfolk there are 10 patients currently on the national transplant list to receive a kidney.
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One of those kids is 5-year-old Legand Crouch from Hampton.
Legand is energetic, loves chicken nuggets, and his favorite superhero is Spider-Man.
His grandfather, Whalan McDew, said you would never know his grandson is on nightly dialysis.
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"He's on the machine normally around 7:30ish and he's off at 6 in the morning," McDew said. "He gets up at six in the morning, he's getting ready for school, eats breakfast, goes to school. Full day at school comes home and we start all over again.
Legand was born with chronic kidney disease and is looking for a donor.
"There's a lot more people waiting for a kidney than there is that deceased donation can keep up with," Jennifer Kayton, a transplant and dialysis nurse practitioner with CHKD, said. " So living donation allows a patient to get a kidney faster."
Since Martindale started his journey he has been able to get 11 transplants for kids.
He hopes that sharing his story can highlight the need for kids like Legand and someone will take an interest in becoming a donor.
"That's a plus for us so we know in the right time he'll get his kidney and he's going to be fine," McDew said.
If you're interested in becoming a living donor click here.
