Help Steven Reach NYU and Cedars-Sinai
My name is Pastor Steven Mills. I'm a husband, father, pastor in Garden City, Kansas, and longtime radio broadcaster. I've spent much of my life encouraging people, praying with families in hospital rooms, and helping others through their most difficult moments. Today, I'm asking for help with my own fight to survive.
I've survived cancer twice. Hodgkin's lymphoma required chemotherapy, radiation, and a bone marrow transplant. Then, in 2021, I faced colorectal cancer. By God's grace, I survived both battles. But the treatments that saved my life permanently damaged my kidneys.
Today, I have end-stage renal disease and depend on dialysis to stay alive. Treatments, medical supplies, exhaustion, nausea, and sleepless nights are part of my daily life. Dialysis keeps me here, but it isn't a cure. I need a kidney transplant.
Finding one is exceptionally difficult. Because of my medical history, I'm extremely highly sensitized. My immune system has developed antibodies that make finding a compatible kidney extraordinarily challenging. I have O-positive blood, but sharing my blood type doesn't automatically make someone a match. My search could take years, and kidney failure continues taking a toll on my body.
I don't need a million kidneys. I need one compatible donor.
What Your Generosity Has Already Done
When content creator Joshua Liljenquist learned about my situation, he helped tell my story to the world. His video reached millions of people. Strangers began praying, sharing, exploring living kidney donation, and sending encouragement. Joshua also created a GoFundMe to help my family with the overwhelming costs of this illness.
The response was extraordinary. People gave what they could, from a few dollars to much larger gifts. Others shared my story with friends and churches. Every act of kindness mattered.
Those donations helped us pay an enormous medical bill. I want everyone who contributed to know that your generosity accomplished something real. You helped lift a financial burden that once seemed impossible. My family and I will never forget it.
But paying one enormous medical bill doesn't mean the illness is over. Dialysis continues. Insurance deductibles, prescriptions, supplies, appointments, transportation, and basic living expenses continue. A successful fundraiser doesn't stop the next bill from arriving.
That is why I'm asking for help with the next step in my search.
Two Hospitals and Two Opportunities
In November and December, I am preparing to pursue transplant evaluations at NYU Langone Health in New York City and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Because finding a compatible kidney is so complicated, I need to explore additional transplant programs, specialists, and potential pathways. These evaluations may help identify possibilities I have not yet been able to pursue. Neither hospital can promise a transplant, but I believe these opportunities are too important to leave unexplored.
Getting there is expensive. Traveling from Kansas to both coasts means airfare, hotels, ground transportation, meals, and medical travel expenses. My dialysis care must also be coordinated around the trips. And while I travel, our medical and household bills at home do not disappear.
These are not vacations. I'm traveling because I'm fighting for my life.
Why This GiveSendGo
I want to be completely transparent: We are not starting over. We are moving forward.
Joshua's original GoFundMe helped us meet a major medical obligation. This GiveSendGo has a specific immediate purpose: helping me reach NYU and Cedars-Sinai for additional kidney transplant evaluations.
Donations will help pay for flights, lodging, transportation, meals, and necessary medical travel costs. Because of the distance and the circumstances, it is likely that multiple trips to both hospitals will need to happen, Contributions may also help cover ongoing medical expenses and essential living needs while I remain on dialysis. If appointment or travel plans change, funds will still go toward necessary transplant-related care, medical expenses, and essential living needs.
If you have already donated, please know how grateful I am. I don't want anyone to feel obligated to give again. But if you've followed my journey and wondered what comes next, this is the next step.
The first wave of generosity helped us pay a bill that once seemed impossible. This next wave can help me reach the hospitals where I hope to find new answers.
I'm Asking for Your Help
As a pastor, I've stood beside people who were frightened and uncertain about tomorrow. As a broadcaster, I've spent years trying to connect people and tell stories that matter. Asking for help myself has been humbling, but surviving cancer twice has taught me that strength doesn't mean doing everything alone.
I want to keep serving my church and community. I want to keep being a husband and father, making memories, laughing, and enjoying the ordinary days that illness has taught me to treasure. I want a life beyond dialysis, and I'm willing to keep fighting for it.
If you're able, please donate to this GiveSendGo. Whether it's $5, $25, $100, or another amount, your gift can help me get to these evaluations.
If you cannot donate, please share this campaign with your family, church, coworkers, and friends. A share might reach someone willing and medically able to explore living kidney donation.
To learn about my kidney search and the living-donor process, visit https://FindMyOne.org.
My Story Isn't Finished
I've survived two cancers and treatments that permanently changed my body. I've endured frightening medical conversations, the daily reality of dialysis, and the financial strain that comes with a serious illness. But I've also seen strangers become friends and people from every walk of life rally around the possibility of saving one life.
I cannot promise that NYU or Cedars-Sinai will find my compatible kidney. I can promise that I'll keep searching, praying, and pursuing every reasonable opportunity.
Millions have seen my story. I'm still looking for one.
One compatible donor. One opportunity. One chance to live beyond dialysis.
Thank you for helping us pay that enormous bill. Thank you for helping me take the next step. Thank you for every donation, prayer, and share.
With love, faith, and gratitude,
Rev. Dr. Steven Mills
Husband | Father | Pastor | Broadcaster | Two-Time Cancer Survivor
https://FindMyOne.org
Don't Let It Stop With You.
