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Man who walked miles every day to find kidney donor for wife finally gets his wish

FARR WEST, Utah — A 74-year-old man who walked several miles every day searching for a kidney donation for his wife finally got what he was looking for.

Wayne Winters, 74, of Farr West, Utah, went viral last month as he desperately searched for a kidney donation for his wife, Deanne, who was diagnosed with stage 5 kidney failure, KSTU reports.

“I didn’t know what to do,” he said. “I felt like I needed to do something.”

He decided to strap on a sandwich board and walk along a busy road. Dressed in slacks, a jacket, a hat and his sandwich board pleading for kidney donations, Winters walked several miles hoping to catch just the right person's eye.

Finally, weeks later, Winters’ search has come to an end. He finally got the call he was waiting for, and now his wife is now recovering from transplant surgery.

Although he finally found a match for his wife, Winters says he still plans to take walks with his sign.

“I will spend more of my days walking with my sign to see how many I can get,” Winters said.

According to the National Kidney Foundation, about 30 million Americans have chronic kidney disease. The two main causes of the disease are high blood pressure and diabetes.

Kidney disease causes toxins to build up in the blood, causing people to feel sick. Early detection can cause kidney disease from becoming worse before dialysis or transplants are needed.