Wisconsin man raises awareness for kidney donations

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) - A Wisconsin man is named the 2021 USA TODAY Triumph Of The Year award winner for his efforts to raise awareness for organ donors specifically kidneys.

In effort to raise awareness for kidney donation, Mark Scotch has been biking around the country this year and isn’t done yet. He says he wants to show a person with one kidney can live a normal life and a highly active lifestyle.

“It gives me another platform another way to get peoples attention and when that happens then I can tell the kidney story,” he said. “And that’s just really what its all about its another way to share the experiences and knowledge that we learn and hopefully more people become interested in donating and saving lives.”

The 66-year-old man got interested in the topic of organ donation in 2020 when he met a former professional horse jockey who suffered from severe renal failure due to damage to his kidneys. Only to find out that they were no match. That still did not stop him from wanting to help someone in need of a kidney.

So his kidney was donated to The National Kidney Registry Voucher Program who matched him with a compatible person in New York.

This weekend Scotch is competing in the Tuscobia Winter Ultra, which includes biking 160 miles from Rice Lake, Wisconsin to Park Falls, Wisconsin and back.

He says three thousand people are added monthly to the kidney waiting list and thirteen people dying everyday waiting.

To learn more about his story and to support his organization, you can visit The Organ Trail on Facebook.

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