Calgary man ‘given a miracle’ after search for kidney donor
The Calgary shop teacher who put up dozens of billboards in the search for a kidney transplant donor, will be heading for surgery late this month after a stranger selflessly offered to save his life.
“A match has been found and a surgery date booked,” reads Ryan Mclennan’s Facebook post, written on Friday. “It is the most incredible thing and a chance to live without pain every day; a chance to get some of my life back! The road ahead is unknown, but I have hope.”
In February, Mclennan and his wife, Shakina, purchased 27 giant black-and-yellow digital signs around the city stating in all capital letters: “Ryan Mclennan needs a living kidney donor.” Mclennan has blood type O.
The billboards featured a photo of the couple and their phone number for potential donors to call, and directed people to a Facebook page started by the family to help spread Mclennan’s story and find him a donor.
He said 30 potential donors came forward after the billboards went up, but one by one doctors ruled all of them incompatible for the transplant. Then Airdrie resident Tony Timmons entered Mclennan’s life.
Mclennan said he’d never met Timmons until a few months ago but, as luck would have it, Timmons’ wife runs a daycare attended by one of Mclennan’s co-worker’s children. The co-worker helped connect the two men, who have become fast friends, with Mclennan saying Timmons is an “all-around awesome person.”
“You can only say thank you so many times, but he’s definitely a hero in my eyes,” Mclennan told Postmedia. “I’ve had extremely good friends and family members who really didn’t have the courage to step forward, and then I have someone who doesn’t even know me step forward.”
Mclennan said he put off announcing the news he had found a match because there is still a chance the surgery could get bumped by a few days or he won’t be healthy enough to go through with the operation.
“The docs tell me if I get sick, if I get bad blood results or for a few other reasons, then the surgery will not happen,” he said. “But I have to be strong and think positive because I have been given a miracle.”
Mclennan was a mechanic before his kidneys began to fail about 15 years ago and he was unable to continue working in his field.
He is now mechanics and autobody teacher at Father Lacombe High School in Calgary, winning a Teacher of the Year award about four years ago.
Elaine Austin, Mclennan’s mother, donated her own kidney for her son’s first transplant around 15 years ago. She told Postmedia in February her son’s health had been “pretty good” until the past year, when his body began to reject the transplanted kidney.
Mclennan’s surgery is scheduled for Nov. 28 and he said it “will be one of the greatest days of my life.”