By Ashley M. Casey

Associate Editor

“If you put strawberries in a bowl and add sugar to it, after a while the sugar will draw the juices out of the strawberries.”

That is how Baldwinsville resident Anthony DeMarchi describes the process of dialysis, which he must undergo nightly to remove toxins from his blood. About a year ago, DeMarchi learned he had developed kidney failure due to complications of type 1 diabetes. Now, DeMarchi is reaching out to his community in Baldwinsville and beyond in hopes of finding a donor.

“I’ve been asking for a little over a year now,” he said. “It’s kind of weird asking for a body part.”

DeMarchi, who grew up in Eastwood, moved to Baldwinsville 11 years ago. He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1996 when he was 16 years old. Type 1 diabetes is a chronic autoimmune illness in which the pancreas does not produce enough insulin, a hormone that regulates blood sugar. DeMarchi must inject himself with medication four times a day to keep his blood sugar down.

“A little over a year [ago], I just got so sick. I could barely get out of bed. It was awful,” said DeMarchi.

According to the National Kidney Foundation, diabetes can damage blood vessels and nerves, leading to injury of the kidneys. About 30% of type 1 diabetics will develop kidney failure.

Each night, DeMarchi must hook himself up to a peritoneal dialysis machine via a catheter in his abdomen. He goes through three footlong bags of dialysate fluid every night to filter waste materials from his blood. The overnight process takes five cycles, lasting a total of 10 hours.

“Dialysis does some of the work of healthy kidneys, but it does not cure your kidney disease. You will need to have dialysis treatments for your whole life unless you are able to get a kidney transplant,” reads the NKF website.

DeMarchi is hoping to find a living kidney donor. Medical conditions have ruled out some of his own family members, so he recently posted on Facebook asking for help. (See sidebar for more information.)

“For a deceased donor kidney, the average wait time is about four to five years,” DeMarchi said. “They push for a living donor because the kidney lasts longer.”

A kidney from a living donor can last 15 to 20 years, according to the NKF.

“The criteria are really strict, which is nice that they really take care of the person that is donating. They have a whole team that works with them to make sure they have their rights and everything is okay,” DeMarchi said.

He lives in B’ville with his wife, Caitlin, and their sons, 14-year-old Anthony Jr. and Tyler, who is turning 11 soon.

“They’re pretty much my world. I love spending time with them,” DeMarchi said of his family. “I love going to my sons’ sports things.”

While his illness leaves him unable to work, DeMarchi is devoted to his role on the Baldwinsville Pop Warner board of directors. He also is an author; his horror novel “Man in the Van” came out in 2013 and his children’s book “The Crocodile with a Knot in His Tail” was released in 2015 and illustrated by his son, Anthony Jr.

“It’s nice to be able to just write and get your mind off things,” DeMarchi said.

Receiving a new kidney would give DeMarchi more freedom. He wouldn’t have to spend 10 hours a day tethered to a dialysis machine, and he would be able to ease some of his dietary and fluid intake restrictions. DeMarchi said he might be able to receive a pancreas transplant at the same time as a kidney transplant, which would restore his body’s ability to produce insulin. The pancreas, DeMarchi said, likely would come from a separate, deceased donor.

“I have good days and bad days. Some days I feel kind of tired, I just feel kind of off. Some days I feel fine,” he said. “It’d be nice to not feel sick anymore.”

If someone wants to donate an organ but is not compatible with DeMarchi, he encourages them to seek a donor exchange program or include organ donation in their end-of-life wishes.

“If you can’t help my specific case, you could help others in the future,” he said.