My name is Max and I’m originally from Chicago, Illinois. When I was 26 I donated a kidney to a stranger who has since become a close friend.

I’m a lifelong climber and outdoor enthusiast usually spending over 230 days in the mountains a year doing various sports including climbing, skiing, bikepacking, pack rafting, and general adventuring.

I’ve been a ski patroller since 2020 in Utah and Wyoming. Before driving to work one morning I saw an Instagram post about a woman in Salt Lake looking for a kidney. We had never met but it was shared by some of my close friends and ski partners. I knew my blood type was a match so I sent her a message saying I’d be interested in starting testing.

The process of becoming a donor was slow at first. I started with blood and antibody testing to confirm I was a match. Getting a call from the center that I was a match was incredibly encouraging and I soon started more testing.

Because of my activity level and regular weightlifting, some of my tests were skewed to show higher than normal creatinine levels in my blood. A few more tests and contrast CT scans later and I was approved to donate.

My recipient had a few delays and all in all it took just over a year and a half from my first message to her until our donation date on March 25, 2023.

I spent the month before surgery riding motorcycles around Baja, eating fish tacos, and getting lost in the desert. I got an email with the surgery date and final approval while in San Felipe and booked it back to Salt Lake to prepare. 

The surgery process was really very simple for me and I walked out of the hospital the next day. I was in some discomfort but I was eager to get back to my normal active life. 

I started going on walks within two days as often as possible which really helped with the pain, and spent time rebuilding my motorcycle.

I began lifting weights about two months post and ran a 5k after 9 weeks. Within 10 weeks I was back at work without restrictions felling trees at my summer trail crew job.

My only setback was a close call with a suspected hernia after riding a packraft off a waterfall in Lander, Wyoming 7 weeks out. It ended up being a false alarm and I continue to jump off waterfalls to this day.

Since then I’ve returned to my normal activity level skiing 130+ days a year both for work and fun. I returned to climbing at my normal level and have since put up several new routes around Salt Lake and the southern Utah desert.

Other than a few small dietary changes my day to day life hasn’t changed at all. I’m in even better shape now than I was before and don’t limit myself in the mountains at all.

Without a doubt this has been the most gratifying, life changing thing I’ve ever done and I feel incredibly lucky to have benefited someone with my decision to donate. It has changed how I look at the world and how my actions can have a big impact.

As a philosophy dropout I was always interested in how I could have the biggest impact on the world. I’ve changed my thinking a lot since then from “how can I change the world” to “how can I change just one person’s world”. I feel extremely grateful to have been able to do that.