It’s been a long journey for 45-year-old former firefighter Scott Schneider. At age three he knew he wanted to be a firefighter, but he was diagnosed with kidney disease as a child.
“So I had a number of firefighters tell me I was never going to be a firefighter,” Schneider said. “My parents told me I was never going to be a firefighter so I just wanted it more. So right after my transplant the first thing I did was get in shape and get ready for the fire academy.”
Against all odds, he became a Sacramento firefighter, but after 18 years he had to give up his dream job suddenly as he was hit with several health problems at once, including mouth cancer, nine months of paralysis from Guillain-Barre syndrome and kidney failure.
He was told he had a 1 in 30,000 chance he’d find a kidney donor until his own family members stepped up to help.