Mark Scotch
To increase awareness about kidney disease and living donation and prove that donors can return to their previous level of activity and function on a single kidney, Mark Scotch launched the Organ Trail in 2021.
In his first Organ Trail, Mark cycled 1,500 miles from Madison, where he donated his kidney, to Natchitoches, where he first met his recipient. In 2025 Mark will do his sixth Organ Trail ride, a 1,846-mile ride from Los Angeles to Denver.
Donor Story: Early in 2020, Mark Scotch—a 64-year-old from Wisconsin, retired from a career of selling diagnostic equipment in the paper mill industry—met Hugh Smith, a 56-year-old former professional horse jockey—at Cane River Brewing in Hugh’s hometown of Natchitoches, Louisiana. Hugh was undergoing peritoneal dialysis for 10 hours every night as he waited for a kidney transplant from a deceased donor. Mark decided he wanted to give one of his kidneys to Hugh. Mark donated through the National Kidney Registry Voucher Program on September 30, 2020, generating a voucher for Hugh, which he redeemed for a living donor transplant in February 2021. Both men are healthy and have resumed normal lifestyles. On May 25, 2023, Mark became a double living donor, donating a portion of his liver to a nine-month-old girl.