Utah Man Wears Sandwich Sign To Find Kidney Donor For Wife

FARR WEST, UT — This is how love and devotion look: Wayne Winters, 74, puts on a brand-new business suit and shoes, then slips a sandwich board over his shoulders every day and walks the streets of the Salt Lake City suburb of Farr West in a desperate plea to find a new kidney for his wife, The sign is simply lettered in red: “Need Kidney 4 Wife,” it reads, and includes Deanne Winter’s blood type — A-negative — and his phone number.

Winters said he doesn’t walk fast, but he walks with determination. He and Deanne, who is in the final stages of renal failure, met 26 years ago and he considers her the love of his life. Rather than give in to the feeling of helplessness, Winters said he felt like he needed to do something to ease her suffering and extend her life.

She is “on dialysis and she doesn’t like it,” Winters told KSTU-TV of the procedure she goes through three times a week to have waste products cleaned from her blood. “It’s horrible. … She don’t look good.” (For more news like this, sign up for real-time breaking news alerts and free morning newsletters from Salt Lake City Patch, or find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Winters told WTHR-TV it’s his life mission to find kidneys for people. On the back of the sandwich board is a message that spells out the need for others in Utah and Idaho who are on the waiting list for kidneys. At least 1,000 donors of all blood types are needed to fill the gap, according to his sign.

Response has been phenomenal, he said, adding that he hopes media attention to his efforts will nudge more people to become living organ donors.

Deanna Winters hasn’t found a match yet, but three kidneys have come close, she told WTHR.

“I just have hope and faith that it will come through because I have a lot of living left to do,” she said.

“After I get a kidney, I will have my wife back the way she was, normal, helping people, loving people,” he told KSTU. “She likes to serve people.”

Winters got the idea for the campaign to find a kidney for Deanne and others after learning about a South Carolina man who gained national attention in 2012 when he wore a sandwich sign to find a kidney for his wife. Larry Swilling found a donor for his wife, Jimmie Sue, who underwent a kidney transplant in 2013. She died the day after Valentine’s Day 2017 of complications of Parkinson’s disease. Her kidney was going strong when she died, the Independent Mail wrote.

More information about kidney donation can be found on the National Kidney Foundation website. Currently, there are more than 100,000 people waiting kidneys, and the average wait time is more than three and one-half years, according to the organization, which said more than 3,000 new patients are added to the kidney waiting list each month, and 13 people die every day while awaiting a kidney.

Here’s a video of Winters’ story on KSTU:

KSTU has provided a number for those who want to assist the couple in finding a kidney: (801) 675-0278.

Photo via Shutterstock