He put up a Times Square billboard in search of a kidney – and saved more lives than his own

Marc Weiner booked one of the world’s most visible advertising spots, hoping his life would change. He ended up changing the lives of dozens of others, too

Marc Weiner has two voices. There is his speaking voice, engaging and booming, sharpened over years in front of the camera as a TV news reporter. And then there is the voice in his head, normally ringing with the same positivity he exudes in everyday life. But when Weiner was left hanging after telling loved ones he needed a kidney – a handful got tested; none were a match – that voice took on a darker tone. “Do people not love me?” he wondered.

Weiner, 56, found out he had bladder cancer in July 2015 and had his prostate, bladder and both of his kidneys removed the following year. After another tumor was later removed from his stomach, Weiner was cancer-free and optimistic: All he needed was to find a kidney donor.

But after finding no refuge in his friends and family, he looked at the numbers: more than 90,000 Americans are in need of a kidney transplant, with 13 people dying everyday waiting for a kidney. In New York state, the average wait time for a kidney from a deceased donor is seven to 10 years.

Weiner didn’t like those numbers. He thought of his daughter, Lily, who was nine when he was diagnosed. He thought of the mornings he’d spend, waking up at the crack of dawn to hook himself up to a machine that drew out his blood over hours, filtered it for waste and pumped it back into his body. Dialysis helped to keep Weiner alive, but it was exhausting, and not a permanent fix.

He was resolved. “Was I going to wait five, seven, 10 years on a list?” Weiner said. “Hell no.”

Then, one day, a glimmer of hope appeared. Weiner’s wife, Lisa, heard about a man named Robert Leibowitz in New Jersey. On a family trip to Disney World, Leibowitz had worn a shirt emblazoned with a message – “In Need of Kidney” – and his phone number. He found a donor.

A plan hatched in Lisa’s mind.

Lisa, a longtime advertising executive, was on a car ride back from Hershey Park when she got the call confirming the good news. She turned to her husband.

“Oh my god,” she said. “They’re going to do it.”

“What are you talking about?” he replied.

“The billboard,” she said.

On a sunny day in late August 2018, Weiner stood on the corner of Broadway and 47th Street in Times Square, where a 5,000-sq ft billboard bore his smiling face and a link to his new website. “My name is Marc,” the billboard read. “I need a Kidney. YOU can Help!”

Weiner posed for a photo in front of the billboard with Lily, posted it to social media and, with hope in his heart, waited for one kind stranger.

•••

More than 1,800 people responded to Weiner’s call for a kidney, crashing the portal for prospective donors Weill Cornell Medicine had set up for him. Still, he couldn’t find a match. Only a small fraction of respondents were truly interested.

But hiding among them was a person who would go on to change Weiner’s life – if not in the way he expected.

It was about 3am on an August morning in 2018 when Mike Lollo, a slender man with close-cropped gray hair and a warm smile, read about Weiner’s billboard in the New York Post. The humanity of Weiner’s story appealed to Lollo, then working as an NYPD detective. And so, within days, he was undergoing blood work and a 24-hour urine collection, preparing to give his kidney over to a man he’d never met.

Lollo wasn’t a match for Weiner. But something had changed in his mind that day. If he was ready to undergo surgery to change one stranger’s life, he figured, why not do it for someone else instead?

Lollo underwent the two-hour surgery that December, taking six weeks off work to recover. While people usually don’t donate their kidney to a stranger – most worry about the surgery; the scar; the costs; or panicky scenarios, where life might change without one of the organs with which they were born – Lollo joined a small but growing number of people in the United States who do.

So when Weiner learned of Lollo’s gesture – a New York Post reporter had called him, asking for comment – he rushed to Lollo’s hospital room, brandishing a Kron chocolate basket and a wide smile.

Weiner walked into the room, looking at Lollo in his gown, talking to his wife and introduced himself. “I know who you are,” said Lollo, before he could finish.

“That guy,” Weiner said, “He cared about me.”

•••

Mike Lollo was so moved by meeting Weiner and donating his own kidney that he decided to volunteer for the National Kidney Donation Organization. Later, he was named its president.

Weiner, meanwhile, was beginning to realize the power of human connection.

So, in late 2020, he came up with another plan. He launched a second billboard in Times Square, this time on Seventh Avenue and West 43rd Street. Weiner knew he still might not find a kidney, but he wondered if there were more Mike Lollos out there. Living kidney donations, oftentimes, are sparked by others speaking about their own donations.

On 31 December, CBS News, Weiner’s employer, ran a story on This Morning documenting his journey. “If you’re in the spirit of giving, think about giving your kidney,” Weiner said on the broadcast. “You’re going to save a life, and, ultimately, who knows, you might help me out.”

Two years on from when he launched his first billboard, Weiner had learned some lessons. He knew people might see the billboard, sign up and lose their nerve. So he and Lollo came up with a new system partnering people who signed up to donate with “mentors.” Now, if a potential donor got cold feet; if they woke up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night wondering, “Why on earth am I giving someone I don’t know my kidney?” the mentor would be on call, to remind them the process was safe, having been through it themselves already. Humans need only one functioning kidney to live an active, healthy life, despite being born with two.

•••

For Hillary Baude, it was the thought of Weiner’s daughter that jolted her into action. She’d watched the This Morning report live on television, then spent the rest of the day watching it over and over on her iPad, while researching kidney donation. She knew all too well the pain that comes when you can’t provide a loved one the help they need.

Baude and her husband, Jim, had their first child in 2013. They were supposed to have two. Ellie, born premature at 33 weeks, had an identical twin who died halfway through Baude’s pregnancy. Ellie’s first moments in the world were marked by pain. She had stopped growing around the time of her twin’s death, and was 13 inches long, weighing two pounds, three ounces. She had two holes in her heart.

Five months after her birth, Ellie underwent open-heart surgery. The operation stabilized her, but concerns about her health lingered. Doctors indicated she was likely to have suffered brain damage. And her body bore a reminder of the sibling the world would never meet: she was diagnosed with type V cutis aplasia, a rare skin defect occurring in surviving twins. Ellie was born with no skin from her hip to her knees, symmetrical in length on both legs.

The Baudes were able to get Ellie laser treatment that allowed her skin to expand over the exposed parts, but that would not be the end of the family’s health struggles. About a year after Ellie’s birth, Jim was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

That’s when Baude started to run. Running from her grief, yes, but also running because she could. She’d strap Ellie into a running stroller and hit the streets.

“I was like, ‘wow, all of these people around me are just going through these very difficult experiences. And I am healthy,” Baude said. “I have the ability to do this.”

Jim made a full recovery from the prostate cancer, and Ellie defied doctor’s prognostications and is now a happy older sister to two-year-old Josie. But Baude kept running, eventually graduating to marathons, the compounding miles deepening her well of gratitude.

Not long after she watched the CBS segment on Weiner, Baude’s mind was made up. His family deserved the same relief hers had experienced, she thought. And she had a kidney to spare.

•••

Baude wound up being a match for Weiner, but because it wasn’t the strongest match – some kidneys will last longer in some recipients than others – she didn’t end up giving her kidney to him. Instead, she decided to initiate a “kidney chain”: Her organ would go to someone else in need of a kidney, who had another willing recipient who wasn’t a match. That person’s kidney, like Baude’s, went to a stranger – and Weiner, thanks to Baude’s donation, got a “voucher” for a kidney he can cash in when his health permits, receiving a kidney from a donor who is an optimal match.

Four more people who wanted to donate to Weiner completed testing, Lollo said, and plan to donate their kidneys to strangers. As Weiner waits on his kidney, he takes solace in knowing his efforts have helped to save at least six people’s lives. Lollo attributes the efforts to the mentorship program, which he believes could help eradicate the kidney waitlist if there was more awareness around donation. There are more than 253.8 million adults in the nation – most of whom presumably have a kidney to spare – according to the 2020 US Census.

“If less than half of 1% of those people came forward,” Lollo said, “we would be able to find 100,000 (donors), I guarantee it.”

Two weeks after her donation, Baude began running again – she was preparing for the New York City Marathon. When she ran the largest US marathon on 7 November 2021, she wanted to show people kidney donors could still be athletes.

But finishing in under four hours wasn’t the only surprise she’d have that day. As Baude galloped through the streets of New York City, her blond ponytail flapping against her back, her husband secretly met up with Lollo and, for the first time, the Weiner family. They huddled together in a crowd on a packed city street, a makeshift family amid a sea of strangers wielding signs and smiles.

At 1:50pm, as Baude came into view, they all shouted her name: “Hillary!” She locked eyes with Jim first, and then Lollo, who pointed to another man, a stranger who looked like a friend. “Ahh!” she yelped, noticing the face of the man she knew from the billboard. She embraced Weiner. They hugged, and Weiner turned to his wife and daughter, looking back at Baude incredulously. “One kidney!” he shouted.

The group ducked into the first bar they found. Amid the humdrum of hugs and salutations, Baude ordered an IPA and fielded questions about the race from Weiner, who’d slipped into reporter mode. It felt like a family reunion. They laughed and exchanged stories. After about an hour, Weiner picked up the tab.

“Thank you!” Hillary said.

Weiner looked at her, astonished: “Are you kidding?” he asked.

When the Weiners drove back that evening, they left the marathon knowing they were approaching their own finish line. Because of the chain initiated by Baude’s donation, in early 2022 Weiner will finally receive a kidney. Lily, his only daughter, is 15 now, a high school sophomore, and he’s excited to watch her get older. The dark voice in his head had quieted.

Back inside the dimly-lit bar, Baude and her husband chatted with Steve Wilson, Baude’s kidney mentor, but a piece of the Weiners remained. The bar was called Lily’s.

Those would like to learn more about kidney donation are encouraged to visit nkdo.org/considering-kidney-donation.

Joshua Needelman

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

Article image
Record number of lives saved as UK organ donor numbers rise
Almost 3,500 patients received new bodyparts recovered from 1,323 deceased people last year, latest figures show

Denis Campbell, health correspondent

04, Mar, 2014 @12:14 AM

Article image
From peas in a pod to a kidney transplant: how my little brother saved my life
I spent my childhood needling Paul, but he was my constant companion. And when I needed a kidney transplant this year, he was the first to volunteer

Mark Tunnicliffe

14, Oct, 2017 @5:00 AM

Article image
Times Square becomes smoke free as New York extends ban outdoors
Smoking prohibited in parks and beaches in biggest anti-smoking push since ban from restaurants and bars in 2002

Ed Pilkington in New York

03, Feb, 2011 @6:41 PM

Article image
Why I run: it's not pretty or elegant, but it's the best way to clear your head
Running really only requires a good pair of shoes to be done right – and if you do it long enough and hard enough, it lets you forget what’s bothering you

Jen Miller

15, Apr, 2016 @2:49 PM

Article image
Using animal organs in humans: 'It's just a question of when'
Gene-editing technology has accelerated progress on animal organ transplant to the point where scientists will soon begin the first human trials

Karen Weintraub in Cambridge, Massachusetts

03, Apr, 2019 @9:00 AM

Article image
War against harm: Ithaca's mayor is leading the charge against the heroin epidemic
Ithaca is proposing a supervised facility where users can shoot up in front of a nurse and not be arrested. Can Svante Myrick convince the city it’s a good idea?

Chris Arnade

05, Mar, 2016 @1:30 PM

Article image
Renting hell in New York City: how my hoarder landlady ruined my life
Steven W Thrasher paid $1,000 a month for a Brooklyn renter’s dream – a sprawling apartment on a beautiful tree-lined block – that was too good to be true

Steven W Thrasher

03, Apr, 2016 @12:00 PM

Article image
Sober is the new drunk: why millennials are ditching bar crawls for juice crawls
Is being sober finally trendy? Juice crawls are just one of many booze-free events in the US catering to millennials who are ditching the hooch in favor of clarity

Angelina Chapin

21, Apr, 2016 @12:00 PM

Article image
The rise of K2: the drug is legal, dangerous – and can’t be stopped
The use of synthetic marijuana is on the rise and can be bought in corner shops everywhere. Because its contents always change, it’s impossible to legislate

Cassie Rodenberg

01, Aug, 2016 @10:00 AM

Article image
‘An inspection could have saved lives’: race to check buildings after New York garage collapse
One person was killed and five injured in the disaster, and 61 other parking structures are ‘immediately hazardous’

Wilfred Chan

28, Apr, 2023 @10:00 AM