Richard Bland speaks up about his kidney problems at an event held in his honor (MyFoxAtlanta)
College students in Georgia are turning to social media to help a classmate in need, MyFoxAtlanta reported.
Richard Bland, who attends Kennesaw State University, suffers from a serious kidney ailment and is in need of a transplant.
His classmates began a social media campaign to help Bland—which involved getting the hashtag #SaveRichard to trend on Twitter and starting Facebook groups about him to spread the word.
In addition, a couple hundred students showed up to a rally to support Bland on Tuesday, including the cast of the MTV show, “The Buried Life.”
"It's insane. I did not know this many people out there cared about me this much,” Bland told MyFoxAtlanta.
According to the local news station, Bland told attendees at the rally that his kidney is essentially “dying” and only 20 percent functional at this time. Bland has to undergo dialysis until a donor is found.
Because he has a particularly rare blood type, it could be some time before a kidney is found off the UNOS transplant list, so KSU students are encouraging people to get tested to see if they are a match for a live transplant.
"The best way we thought about it was to keep Tweeting. And we kept Tweeting and Tweeting—and it just blew up,” KSU student Cody Dewrell told MyFoxAtlanta.
The students are working with the American Red Cross to help find a donor for Bland.
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