Kevin Schnurr “needs a …kidney,” reads a Facebook page started by the 27-year-old New York man, who suffers from a rare disease, and has now been featured in several media reports on Tuesday.
“Hey I just met you, and this is crazy. I need a kidney, so donate maybe,” the message on his Facebook page reads.
Text on his “Find a Kidney for Kevin” page appears to mimic Carly Rae Jespen’s “Call Me Maybe.”
Schnurr told ABC that he was looking for a kidney donor for about a year after he got sick in summer 2012.
“I thought it was just from starting a new job and being stressed out and so on and so forth,” Schnurr said. “I let it slide for a while.”
He added that when doctors checked him out, doctors found that he had Alport syndrome, meaning that his kidneys were progressively getting worse.
Schnurr said he had to hook himself up to a dialysis machine each night before he goes to bed. While he sleeps, the machine removes toxins from his body.
According to a post on Tuesday, Schnurr said he’s received “negative remarks” after the media attention.
“No, I don’t accept my reality. Mostly, because it’s not permanent. It’s temporary. I’m going to get a kidney, get healthy and spend the rest of my life helping others like me. If you’re a parent and think I’m a jerk because I got a news story, maybe you should plaster the town with your child’s face/story and change their reality as well,” he wrote.
He added: “I don’t sit here feeling sorry for myself. I’ve raised over $2,000 for the ASF, donated/walked for the NKF and have reached out and mentored many other patients younger than me dealing with kidney failure. I’ve done two 5ks in the past two months. I know healthy people who haven’t done that many. When you experience something life-threatening you learn to intensely appreciate EVERY SINGLE DAY. So if your reality isn’t what you want it to be, man up and change it.”
