If you met Max, you would never guess he is living with kidney disease. At 16 years old and standing tall at over six feet, he is bursting with energy and life. He loves musicals, theatre, orchestra, and singing at the top of his lungs. When he is not baking something delicious or tending to his garden, you can find him laughing through marathon Monopoly games with friends and family. His humor and warmth light up every room he walks into.

Max was born with a kidney condition we have known about since the day he came into the world. From the very beginning, our family’s goal was both simple and monumental, to help him grow up strong, healthy, and full of life, and to get him through adolescence without needing a transplant. Thanks to the dedicated doctors, remarkable medical care, endless love, and Max’s own resilience, we have reached that milestone.

Over the years, Max’s kidneys have worked incredibly hard to keep up. With regular medical care, he has been able to live a full, active life, one filled with creativity, laughter, and kindness. From countless appointments with his nephrologist and urologist, to a major surgery that helped slow his disease’s progression, Max has faced each challenge with unwavering strength and positivity.

Now that he is older, his kidney function has gradually declined to the point where a transplant will soon be necessary. While he is not on dialysis yet, we know that finding a living donor can take time, and starting the search early gives Max the best chance to continue thriving.

Now, as Max steps into the next chapter of his life, our focus turns to keeping his quality of life as bright as ever and ensuring he can continue doing all the things that make him such a remarkable young man.

To read more about donating a kidney, please check out Max’s National Kidney Registry page here:  https://nkr.org/WGG943.

The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) helps children and young adults who need a life-saving transplant by providing fundraising assistance and family support. COTA is the nation’s only fundraising organization solely dedicated to raising life-saving dollars in honor of transplant-needy children and young adults. 100% of each contribution made to COTA in honor of our patients helps meet transplant-related expenses. COTA’s services are free to our families, and gifts to COTA are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.