Cancer survivor gets successful kidney transplant 2 years after placing massive ad for donors in Times Square

More than two years after his face appeared on a massive billboard in Times Square beside an advertisement for kidney donations, Marc Weiner, a Long Island resident and CBS News employee, is recovering from a successful transplant surgery.

Weiner, who lives in Great Neck and works at CBS News as a producer, talked to CBS New York about his medical journey and somewhat nontraditional path to securing an organ transplant on Sunday morning — his first since being discharged from New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center after the surgery.

“Pardon the shabby beard and coiffed hair, but I am feeling fabulous,” said Weiner during his post-op interview Sunday morning, which he gave from home alongside his wife, Lisa. Weiner noted that less than one week after the transplant surgery, which happened on Tuesday, he already felt “less fatigued” with “more stamina.”

Weiner appeared on an enormous Times Square billboard seeking out potential kidney donors, for a second time, in December 2020. “My name is Marc,” read the text advertisement situated below a photograph of his face. “I need a kidney! YOU can help.”

The advertisement encouraged passersby to learn more about the opportunity at a website whose URL link appropriately asked visitors to “Help Marc Find A Kidney.” But Weiner was not exclusively looking for a kidney donor to be his match, and he would not find one for some time yet. Nonetheless, the New Yorker hoped that his billboard would inspire someone to become a living kidney donor for another person who needed one, if they could not donate directly to him. 

A donation made on Weiner’s behalf would essentially fast-track his own transplant surgery through the National Kidney Registry’s voucher program, which then prioritized his place in line and expedited the waiting period to find him a donor.

“Literally, the second they donate their kidney, sometime later on that day, Marc’s voucher is activated and the computer is working, looking for one of those three, 4,000 people that are in that database who’s going to be a match for Marc, and it potentially could start a chain,” Michael Lollo, a former NYPD detective who was inspired to donate his kidney to a woman in Pennsylvania after seeing Weiner’s Times Square advertisement, told CBS New York. Now retired, Lollo is an advocate for the National Kidney Donation Organization.

Weiner lost both of his kidneys while fighting a cancer diagnosis that he received initially in 2015. By 2020, he was cancer free, although still undergoing dialysis treatments three days a week.

“Being on dialysis isn’t easy, and juggling a full-time job and a family. I want to be healthier, and the way to do that is to find a kidney donor,” Weiner told CBS New York at the time. 

In addition to Lollo, a second donation made by someone who saw his billboard advertisement bumped up Weiner’s position on the National Kidney Registry, and eventually led him to his match, a 20-year-old who donated anonymously. For more information on how to become a living kidney donor, visit kidneyregistry.org.