The post White Sox fan with end-stage kidney disease searching for a donor appeared first on Sox On 35th.
He’s a husband. He’s a father of two. He’s a White Sox fan, just like us.
Ken Welsh loves baseball and has supported the South Siders for as long as he can remember.
“My earliest memory of White Sox baseball was sitting in the upper deck at Old Comiskey,” he said. “I am not sure what game it was or who they were playing, but I remember that view of the greenest grass I ever saw from the upper deck as a little kid. Whenever I walk into any ballpark, seeing the green grass always gives me goosebumps.”
The 46-year-old Burbank native still has his stub from the ballpark’s final game and later became a season ticket holder at New Comiskey in 2001. Occasionally sneaking out of work on a Thursday afternoon, Ken has made plenty of memories at 35th and Shields. Some of his personal favorites have come during the Crosstown Classic, notably Carlos Lee’s walk-off grand slam and the 8-0 comeback in 2002.
A few years later, in 2005, Ken and his wife, Tiffany, got the exciting news that she was pregnant with their first child. The timing felt right for Ken to become a little more “responsible” and give up his season tickets, not knowing how special that year would become.
“It was non-stop excitement,” he said, even if it meant he couldn’t be at every game. “Wherever you were, we were all talking about the White Sox. What a magical season, to finally feel what it’s like to be the last team standing.”
His love for baseball only grew further from there, and not just because of the new World Series title. Ken could now share the game with his children.
“I began volunteering at my local Little League, Burbank National, when my son was seven,” Ken recalled. “I did that for 10 years. It was a great time in my life to see my kids and countless neighborhood kids grow up and become not only great baseball and softball players, but great kids. Some of my greatest memories and sense of accomplishment come from these years.”
Ken hopes to keep making memories and recently started a new annual tradition with his son: baseball road trips. They traveled to Fenway Park in 2024 and Comerica Park this past year. In 2026, they plan to make another trip, which will be a special one as they celebrate his son’s 21st birthday. But that’s not the only thing the two hope to toast.
Ken Welsh and his son, Ken Jr., at Fenway Park in 2024.
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Last June, Ken was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease. Simply put, his kidneys do not work well enough to keep him alive.
“I need to do dialysis,” he wrote in an X post that has garnered attention recently. “I currently go to a dialysis center three days a week for about four hours per day. While I am there, I am connected to a machine that filters my blood, the function that my kidneys can no longer do.”
Ken has been able to get his name on the kidney transplant list at Northwestern Hospital in Illinois and the University of Iowa Hospital, with an ongoing evaluation still pending at the University of Wisconsin Hospital.
Though promising, the wait time for a kidney transplant from a deceased donor can take up to seven years on these lists. Until then, Ken must continue dialysis.
“The best solution is to receive a kidney from a living donor,” Welsh said bluntly. “The benefits of living donor kidney transplants are well‐documented; the kidneys from living donors have longer survival rates, function better, and have fewer complications than kidneys from deceased donors.”
For someone who describes himself as a “very private person,” asking for help hasn’t been easy. But in Ken’s circumstance, it’s necessary.
“I’m not asking for money or financial support; I am lucky to have great insurance from my employer, which covers most of my costs. I am asking for the greatest gift anyone can receive: a kidney donation.”
As his search for a donor continues, Ken has found strength in the outpouring of support from the White Sox community. His post already has over 50,000 views on X as fans have taken up his ask to share his story in whatever ways they can.
“I think White Sox fans are a special breed of people. We’ve been the most loyal through all of the tough times (and the most vocal about it), celebrate like nobody else when we have a winner. We’re all tough, gritty, down-to-earth people. Friendly people, nod at each other because we’re wearing a White Sox hat type of people. And what I’m learning lately, a caring group of people willing to help out a stranger. I am proud to be a White Sox fan. And I am proud that I created two more White Sox fans and converted my wife to become one.”
This wave of support has left Ken not only grateful beyond words but hopeful that he still has many special moments to be made.
“In a lot of ways, baseball is a metaphor for life. You can go out there and score four runs in an inning and be on top of the world … and the next inning you make an error and give up some runs. But your team has your back, and you always have the next inning or game to learn from it and make the next play.
“I feel like I’m in the 6th inning of my life. I can’t wait to enjoy the rest of it, look back, take a breath in the 7th inning stretch, and close it out over the next 30 or 40 years.”
As Ken still searches for his donor, we kindly ask that you share his story with your friends, loved ones, and anyone else who can help. To learn more about the kidney donation process, click on the following hospitals where Ken is registered on the transplant list:
When contacting the hospitals, please mention Ken Welsh as the recipient to help start the process.
The post White Sox fan with end-stage kidney disease searching for a donor appeared first on Sox On 35th.