A local man who was born with only one kidney says he's exhausted all of his options through regular means to acquire a donor organ and has now launched a campaign on social media to find a match.

Bruce Malcolm learned about 30 years ago that the sole kidney he was born with wasn't working properly and he’s only recently found that it is on the verge of collapse.

"I've been on dialysis from early February. That was a step they advised me to take seeing as though I didn’t have a transplant possibility at the time.”

The diagnosis has left Malcolm with a lot of physical limitations that include nerve and muscle pain that prevent him from doing a lot of the things he enjoys.

“It’s only in the last two years that my activity level has dropped down because I can’t do it mainly because of nerve pain in my feet which is a problem because of kidney disease.”

Malcolm is on a list for a kidney, but it’s not an active list because he doesn’t have a donor.

“I can expect to be on this list for four to six years before my turn might come up.”

All of his family members have turned up negative for a match, so they came up with a modern way to help him out.

Karen Malcolm-Pye says that it was up to them to take action because he won’t be able to wait the length of time it will take before he is under consideration from the wait list.

“I am somewhat in social media and broadcast so I thought ‘why can’t we get this message out?’ and make people realize that this is a problem in Canada.”

To get that message across, the family has released a video about Bruce in order to tell them about their strong relationship and encourage viewers to learn more about organ donation in particular.

“They can reach out in any manner that they feel comfortable. I am available to answer any questions that they may have.”

Malcolm says that finding a donor would be an incredible thing.

“It would be a breath of fresh air. It would be a relief because it would give you hopes that you could continue a longer life in a health state and I would like to get back to the physical activities that I have done in the past.”

Karen is optimistic about finding a match.

“My dad means the world to me. He’s been the fittest, healthiest man that I’ve ever known. He’s been running circles around anyone 20, 30 years younger than him his entire life but he needs a kidney to continue to be strong and get stronger again and live that healthy life.”

Jill Goth with the Alberta Kidney Foundation says that getting the word out about a need for kidney donations has transformed a lot through the years.

“Prior to social media, people might have had a bulletin stated in their church or shared it with their social groups but social media is definitely a place where people are congregating.”

Goth says that people have come forward as a result of a social media campaign and ended up helping someone else entirely.

In 2016, there were 747 Albertans waiting for an organ transplant and 45 people died on the wait list while 43 people had to come off the list because they were either too sick for a donation or were ineligible.

If anyone is interested in kidney donation or helping the Malcolm family specifically, they can be contacted at bruceneedsakidney@gmail.com.

(With files from Brenna Rose)