I Refuse to Become Another Man Who Died Waiting While the World Had the Power to Help

There is something I need to say this Monday morning, and I am finished trying to find a comfortable way to say it. I live in a world where billionaires are building rockets, artificial intelligence is rewriting the boundaries of what we thought possible, social media platforms connect billions of people, and broadcasters can deliver a message across America in seconds. Yet here I sit in Garden City, Kansas, connected to dialysis equipment, trying to find one medically compatible kidney donor. I have watched my story travel farther than I ever imagined. I have witnessed extraordinary kindness from people I’ve never met. And I have come to a frightening realization: a man can become known to millions of people and still die waiting for the help he needs.

I don’t intend to quietly become that man.

I have survived Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a bone marrow transplant, and colon cancer. The treatments that helped save my life also contributed to the kidney failure I face today. My heart has suffered significant damage, and my cPRA is extraordinarily high level of immune sensitization that makes finding a compatible kidney exceptionally difficult.

I am 48 years old. I have spent more than 30 years in broadcasting, and I serve as the senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Garden City, Kansas.

I have devoted much of my life to helping other people.

And now I need help.

Not sympathy disguised as concern. Not another round of encouraging words that disappear when the next headline arrives. I am grateful for every prayer, every donation, and every act of kindness, but I need something beyond attention.

I need people with the ability to open doors to start opening them.

I want to speak directly to Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jimmy Donaldson, Joe Rogan, and the executives who lead America’s largest broadcasting companies.

You are among the people who have helped shape how the modern world communicates. You have built companies, audiences, technologies, and platforms with reach that previous generations could scarcely imagine.

I’m not questioning your accomplishments.

I’m questioning whether we have fully considered what those accomplishments could mean for people facing extraordinary medical challenges.

Elon Musk, your companies have pursued engineering problems that others once dismissed as impossible. What might happen if more of that spirit of innovation were directed toward the extraordinary obstacles facing highly sensitized transplant patients?

Mark Zuckerberg, the platforms you helped build have made it possible for a single message to reach people across continents. Could that communication power support a voluntary, medically responsible effort to educate people about living kidney donation?

MrBeast, you have demonstrated that enormous audiences can become participants in remarkable acts of generosity. Could that same creativity help build a sustained effort that benefits patients who are desperately searching for compatible donors?

Joe Rogan, you have the ability to bring complex subjects into conversations that millions of people hear. Would you consider sitting down with me and qualified transplant experts to discuss the science, the barriers, and the possibilities?

And to Bob Pittman, Kelli Turner, Mary Berner, Alfred Liggins, Bill Wilson, Caroline Beasley, Ginny Morris, Peter Tanz, and the other leaders of American broadcasting, I have one question.

If radio can mobilize an entire community to help someone after a disaster, why couldn’t our industry come together to help people before a medical crisis becomes a tragedy?

I’m not asking anyone to manufacture a miracle.

I’m asking you to help create opportunities.

And I am asking publicly because private appeals have not yet produced the breakthrough I need. I don’t know which messages have reached the people I’ve named, and I won’t pretend that I do.

But I know this much.

I cannot afford to stop asking simply because asking makes someone uncomfortable.

Joshua Liljenquist, Samuel Weidenhofer, David Krissman, television journalists, and broadcasters including The TJ Show, Dave Ramsey, Chris Plante, and Edgar “Shoboy” Sotelo have helped bring my story to audiences I could never have reached alone.

Their generosity has been extraordinary.

People have donated. People have prayed. People have offered to explore becoming living kidney donors.

And I am profoundly grateful.

But here’s the part that should trouble anyone who believes modern communication has the power to change lives.

The views keep accumulating. The medical bills keep arriving. The dialysis continues. And I am still waiting.

Somewhere along this journey, I began thinking about my own survival in the language of the broadcasting business.

Reach. Engagement. Impressions. Audience growth. Viral potential.

I know those words. I’ve spent my professional life working with them.

But I never imagined I would be sitting at home wondering whether my next headline might determine whether someone new learns about my search.

There is something deeply unsettling about having to make your own suffering compelling enough to compete for attention.

I don’t want to become famous for being sick.

I want to get well.

I want to continue pastoring my church, working in broadcasting, enjoying my marriage, and living the ordinary moments that serious illness has a way of stealing.

I don’t need another million people to know I’m dying. I need a way to reach someone who might help me live.

In the coming weeks, I am preparing to travel to Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles and NYU Langone Health in New York for additional kidney transplant evaluations.

I’m hoping to qualify for listing at additional transplant centers, giving me more opportunities to be considered for a compatible kidney. Multiple listings cannot guarantee a transplant, but when your compatibility challenges are as severe as mine, every medically appropriate opportunity matters.

These trips come with more expenses, more testing, more travel, and more uncertainty.

My family and I continue carrying a financial burden that grows with every new step in this process.

And I will keep taking those steps.

Because the alternative is to stop fighting.

I am not ready to do that.

I will not accuse someone of lacking compassion because they haven’t responded to an email.

I will not pretend that technology can replace transplant medicine.

I will not suggest that anyone owes me an organ, an interview, a donation, or a personal favor.

And I will never diminish the extraordinary people who have already done so much to help me.

But I will ask difficult questions.

What is the purpose of extraordinary influence if we never challenge ourselves to consider the extraordinary good it might accomplish?

What if the people who build technology, command audiences, fund research, and lead broadcasting companies agreed to have one serious conversation about the obstacles facing highly sensitized transplant patients?

What if that conversation connected researchers with engineers, medical organizations with storytellers, and broadcasters with a national donor-awareness effort?

What if it helped people understand living kidney donation before someone they love desperately needed one?

And what if the effort continued helping patients long after my own search ended?

I am not asking these executives to put their companies on hold.

I’m asking them to put the right people in contact.

One meeting. One introduction. One serious effort.

Surely we can at least explore that possibility.

I have been a pastor long enough to understand that faith doesn’t mean every prayer is answered on our timetable. I’ve sat beside people facing terrible diagnoses. I’ve prayed with families who were afraid. I’ve stood in hospital rooms where nobody knew what tomorrow would bring.

I never imagined how much those experiences would prepare me for my own struggle.

I believe in prayer.

I believe in medical science.

I believe in human compassion.

And I believe that some of the most important things we accomplish in this life begin when someone decides that another person’s suffering is worth their time.

That’s what I’m asking for.

Time.

Attention that leads to action.

A conversation that leads to another conversation.

An introduction that reaches a medical professional, a potential donor, or someone capable of advancing a solution for patients like me.

Because there are others whose stories haven’t gone viral. Others who have no media contacts, no broadcasting experience, and no way to reach the people I’m addressing.

If we can develop something that helps them, too, then this fight will have accomplished something much bigger than saving one broadcaster in Kansas.

But I am not going to pretend that my own life isn’t at stake.

It is.

And I want to live.

I want another year. Another decade. Another opportunity to do something meaningful with the life I’ve been given.

I want to stop measuring my days by medical appointments and start measuring them by the things that make life worth living.

I have survived too much to surrender quietly to the idea that nothing more can be done.

If you are interested in learning about living kidney donation, please contact a qualified transplant program. Donation must always be voluntary, informed, and medically appropriate.

Find My One — My Kidney Donor Search
https://findmyone.org

HCA Midwest Health Living Donor Program
https://www.hcamidwest.com/patient-resources/living-donor-program

The TJ Show Interview
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-the-tj-show-107933196/episode/steven-mills-346784072/

KAKE-TV Coverage
https://archive.joshliljenquist.com/media/watch/kake-news-josh-liljenquist-garden-city-kidney-donor/

Joshua Liljenquist’s Original Video
https://www.lemon8-app.com/@joshlilj/7669122830998569486?region=us

Help With Mounting Medical and Travel Expenses
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-pastor-steven-fight-for-his-life-p74hx

If you cannot donate, please pray. If you cannot do either, please consider sharing this story with five people who have never heard it.

And if you are one of the executives I’ve addressed, I am asking you to do something more than read this.

Have someone from your organization contact me. Let’s talk about what is possible.

I have spent 30 years believing that one voice, given the right opportunity, can change something.

I still believe it.

And I intend to keep using mine.

Because one day, whether my search succeeds or not, I want to know that I did everything within my power to fight for another tomorrow.

But I also want the people with extraordinary power to ask themselves whether there was something within theirs.

The world does not owe me a miracle. But I refuse to believe we have exhausted every opportunity to help make one possible.

Steven Mills, D.Min.
President and Publisher, On The Dial
Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church of Garden City, Kansas

ONE DONOR. ONE LIFE. ONE MORE TOMORROW.

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