Posted on 04/30/23
| News Source: NY Post
A New York man who covered a Times Square billboard during his 2018 search for a kidney donor is now recovering from the long-awaited transplant surgery.
On April 25, Marc Weiner, a 58-year-old cancer survivor from Great Neck — after enduring dialysis treatments three days a week since October 2016 — finally received a life-changing kidney transplant that was years in the making.
“That billboard,” Weiner told the Post, “that was clearly, unequivocally, a lifesaver.”
The smiling, bespectacled TV news executive was pictured on a massive billboard erected over the Crossroads of the World in the summer of 2018.
“My name is Marc. I need a Kidney. YOU can Help!” the sign read, along with a link to a now-defunct website for his donor search.
The billboard was commissioned by the employer of Weiner’s wife Lisa, and prompted responses from now-retired NYPD Det. Michael Lollo and hundreds of other applicants.
Lollo had told the Post he saw the story of Weiner’s donor search and got tested to see if he was a match.
While Lollo and another woman turned out not to be matches for Weiner, it was through their own donations that they were able to give Weiner what he called a “golden ticket” — one that ultimately allowed him the chance to get a kidney through a donor swap program.
Lollo became a kidney donor to a woman he did not know, Ruth Tisak.