Campaign Link: https://helphopelive.org/campaign/25165/

Dear Friends, Colleagues, and Compassionate Strangers,

My name is Don Schmidt. I am a 63-year-old publishing professional who has spent over four decades helping authors bring their books—and their dreams—to life. But today, I am the one who needs help.

For the past few years, I have been fighting a two-front war. One front is Stage 4 metastatic prostate cancer, now thankfully in remission. The other is End-Stage Renal Disease, which has kept me on dialysis for over three years.

Let me tell you, dialysis is not living—it is enduring. Three times a week, four hours a session, every week. It is exhausting. It robs you of time, strength, and hope. But there is a path back to life: a living kidney transplant.

I am blood type A+, and I am actively searching for a living donor—someone brave and selfless enough to give the gift of life. If you are not a match, there is also the National Kidney Registry paired donor program, which allows a swap system that still leads to my transplant—and someone else’s.

To get there, though, I need your help.

I have launched a Help Hope Live campaign to assist with the enormous costs that go beyond what insurance covers—travel for transplant surgery, post-op medications, recovery housing near the transplant center, and long-term care. I am doing everything I can to survive and keep fighting, but I cannot do it alone.

I am not ready to give up. I still have books to write, stories to share, and authors to mentor. I want to live—not just exist tethered to a machine. I want to be here for my friends, for my family, for every sunrise I am lucky enough to see.

If you can help—through a donation, by sharing this message, or even by considering living donation yourself—you are giving me a chance not just to survive, but to live.

Every dollar helps. Every share helps. Every act of kindness brings me closer to a future beyond dialysis.

Please visit my campaign page here:

With deep gratitude,
Don Schmidt
Author • Publisher • Fighter

P.S. If you are curious about the living donor process or the kidney swap program, I am happy to share everything I have learned. Hope starts with knowledge—and sometimes, just asking the right question.