WINNIPEG -- Joshua Prymych is asking a big favour from someone he has yet to meet.

The 23-year-old has a genetic and progressive kidney disease called Alport Syndrome.

He said it’s hard to describe how the condition affects him on a day-to-day basis.

“I am young and it’s been good but I do have a lot of high blood pressure and I get really tired throughout the day,” he explained.

Even so, he is expecting to go on dialysis in the next couple of months, a reality he has come to accept.

“Right now I am looking for living donor because the deceased donor list for my blood type is very long as it is for pretty much every blood type,” he said.

Prymych’s blood type is O-negative, and whoever is interested in donating to him would also need to be O-negative.

He said no one in his family can be his donor because they all live with another genetic condition called thin membrane disease.

“Hospitals won’t let them donate a kidney to me because it could actually affect me very quickly,” he said. “You don’t want to donate a kidney to someone and have it fail in 5 or 10 years.”

Meaning if he is to get one soon, it would have to be from a stranger.

“If they were 100-per cent committed to helping me I would just look at them dead in the eye and just thank the stars that they want to help me,” he said. “So I can keep living and do what I want to do.”

His future plans are to have a family, and he said a living donor would allow him to do that to the best of his capacity, without being tied to a dialysis machine.

According to Transplant Manitoba 26 living kidney donations were done in the province last year. There are also currently 200 Manitobans waiting to receive a kidney.

Prymych added that if someone starts the process to donate a kidney to him, but does not end up being compatible – he asks them to still consider giving the same gift to someone else on the waitlist.

“If you’re already there and you’re willing to help me and you can’t, then there is the potential for you to help somebody else.”

The number for Transplant Manitoba’s Living Donor Coordinator for 1-204-787-2323.