LITTLETON, Colo. — A Colorado man is raising awareness and hope as he waits for a second kidney transplant.

Facing polycystic kidney disease , a genetic form of the disease, Rick Mendoza received a kidney transplant from his sister-in-law in 2011. He said it made him feel “fully alive” and allowed him to be present for his daughter’s formative years.

“She probably didn't want me on the sidelines as much during her soccer games, but I was there supporting her and cheering her,” he told Denver7.

But just over a decade later, in 2022, Mendoza became sick again.

“You feel like your energy level, you had no longer the energy to do things,” he explained. “With kidney failure, your red blood cells take away the oxygen that goes throughout your body, so you feel anemic, and then there's na

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