A local man is pleading to the public to help extend his life.
Dwight Hesman from Tecumseh is attempting to increase his chances of getting a kidney transplant by publicly listing his phone number on multiple vehicles across Windsor-Essex.
Hesman was diagnosed with kidney failure three years ago, and has been waiting for a new kidney ever since.
According to the Ontario Health Trillium Gift of Life Network, the wait time for a kidney transplant is anywhere between two to six years. How long a patient waits will depend on the number of compatible kidneys that are available for transplant.
Hesman is also calling on the provincial government to pass the Peter Kormos Memorial Act. This bill proposes to make organ and tissue donation a procedure to opt out, rather than the current system that requires participants to opt in to donating organs upon death.
He says he's received half a dozen inquiries since his phone number hit the streets six months ago.
"The fact that somebody would entertain the idea of actually being interested in doing this, is just mind blowing."
Hesman says he's on the wait list for a deceased donor, but is now reaching out to living donors as well.
"And the difference being that with a deceased donor, if I was to get a transplant, longevity would be five years. For a living donor, a prognosis would be roughly 15 years... so there's a definite benefit of a living donor."
He says someone would need to be a match for A+.
"What would happen is there's a number that a donor would call, and then they would walk you through the process. There's some testing that they would go through to see if they're a match, and if that's the case, then the actual procedure would be done in London."
For more information on the process of donating an organ you can call London Health Sciences Centre at 519-685-8500.
If you are interested in helping Hesman, you can reach him directly at 226-340-1406.
-with files from CTV Windsor's Stefanie Masotti