NYC Husband Uses His Car As Billboard To Find Wife A Kidney Donor

QUEENS, NY -- Michael Bilski would do anything to save his wife from the dialysis treatments that have drained the life from her while keeping her alive since her kidneys began to fail.

The 52-year-old Queens husband would gladly give up one of his own kidneys, but his diabetes means that's not an option. Neither is the 6-year wait for a donor on the transplant waitlist that his wife is currently on. Bilski knew he'd have to get creative.

Fast forward nearly a year and his solution is splayed in white lettering across the rear window of his white Nissan compact car: "Wife Needs A Kidney."

Underneath, potential donors can find everything they need to know: His wife's blood type (B-Positive), his contact phone number and a final line that reads, "Please Donate."

Bilski told Patch he's been driving his car around with that message across the back of it for about two weeks, and he intends to keep it up until he finds his wife, Sandy Collado-Bilski, a kidney donor.

"I'm going to try anything I have to to save the love of my life," he said.

It's an accurate term for the pair, who have, quite literally, been together for most of their lives. Bilski met Sandy, now 50, when he was just 18 and she 16. The high school sweethearts dated on and off until tying the knot 23 years ago.

"The minute I saw her I fell in love with her, and I never stopped pursuing her," Bilski said. "She's my soulmate."

Life was good for a while. The pair raised four children in their Glendale home and helped run East Coast Car Association, a nonprofit whose charity car shows have raised more than $200,000 for St. Mary's Healthcare System for Children in Bayside.

If there were any warning signs that Sandy's health was declining, the pair didn't notice them. When Sandy began to lose weight around a year ago, the couple thought it was odd but brushed it off, Bilski said. But when Sandy passed out at work shortly after, the couple knew something was wrong.

"Doctors checked her the next day, and within a half hour they called an ambulance because they knew her kidneys were failing," he said. "They tried to pump solutions into her but nothing could bring her kidneys back."

Since then, Sandy has been on dialysis three times a week, sitting through four-hour treatments on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays while she waits to find a kidney donor. Like Bilski, the couple's four children aren't eligible to donate, which means Sandy will likely have to get her transplant from a stranger. She was told that would take about six years if she relies on the wait list she's currently on.

Bilski doesn't want to chance it. He knows dialysis isn't an easy treatment by any means and fears the toll it could take on Sandy.

"Dialysis puts such a strain on your heart," he said. "I don't want to put that type of strain on my wife, so I'm trying by any means possible to make this happen."

He came up with the idea to turn his car into a mobile billboard after reading about two guys who found a kidney donor when they put a similar sign on the back of a pickup truck in California.

Inspired, Bilski created his own rear window signage with a corresponding Facebook page that same day. He's since covered local supermarkets with similar flyers and soon plans to print the message on T-shirts.

"I'm just trying to connect anywhere I can to find somebody to volunteer," he said. "Anything I can think of, I'm doing."

His car has prompted several inquiries – one person was even tested to be a potential donor – but no matches. And not everyone has been kind. Bilski said he first listed his wife's number as the point of contact on the car, but he had to replace it with his own after a prank caller dialed to ask how much she'd pay for a kidney.

"I didn't want her to have to go through that," he said.

Still, Bilski remains hopeful. He and his wife plan their future as though they already have a donor lined up. Once Sandy gets a kidney, the pair will take a cross-country train ride and sign up for a weeklong car race from Chicago to California along Route 66.

But until that donor comes along, life remains on hold.

Dialysis is both draining and time consuming, which means Sandy's time not in treatment is often spent recovering from it, Bilski said.

"There's not much we can do," he said. "We can't schedule anything."

The couple will travel in May to watch their youngest son graduate from Bates College in Maine. It will be their first out-of-state trip since Sandy's diagnosis, and they had to start planning months in advance.

"She'll do dialysis at 5 a.m. for us to get on the road by noon and we'll have to leave in time to make sure she's back for Monday's dialysis," Bilski explained.

Times like these are difficult, sure, but Bilski said his wife's determination keeps both of them going. He knows kidney failure has been hard on her, both physically and mentally, but she rarely shows it.

"She always says the Lord has a plan for her and she's not going to let this beat her," Bilski said. "We're just trying to survive this the best we can."

And as long as his wife keeps fighting, he'll keep searching for a kidney donor.

"Hopefully, by the grace of God and the power of prayer, someone will come forward."

Lead photos courtesy of Michael Bilski.