Mark Scotch came through Coahoma County on his 1,500-mile bike ride to raise awareness about donating kidneys.
Scotch began in central Wisconsin, his home state, April 24 and went all the way to Natchitoches, La. His wife, Lynn, drove a vehicle the same distance with him. Mark and Lynn drove home together in late May.
Scotch’s stop in Coahoma County came in the early part of May. He rode from Memphis to Rena Lara and then drove with his wife to the Isle of Capri in Lula where he stayed overnight. The next day he rode from Rena Lara to Winterville. He averaged 75 miles per day on his bicycle, but some days he went further and other days he did not go as far. He said it takes 10 hours to go 100 miles with stops. He goes between 12 to 15 miles per hour when riding a bicycle.
“We realized there was a dire need for donors, especially living donors,” Scotch said. “Thirteen people die every day because of a lack of kidney transplants. Second reason is I just want to demonstrate that you can donate a kidney and still do these crazy things.”
Scotch began to think about donating a kidney when he met Hugh Smith, who was in need, at a bar in Louisiana in February 2020. Scotch had surgery Sept. 30, 2020 to donate a kidney that went to the best match on the National Kidney Registry.
Scotch made Smith his voucher recipient when he donated a kidney. That helped Smith receive the kidney donation he needed.
Scotch’s evaluation was in July 2020. His wife could not come into the hospital with him for the surgery due to the COVID pandemic.
“I didn’t really have a lot of risk factors,” Scotch said. “I wasn’t too worried about, but, of course, we all have to be careful with it. We both ended up getting it (COVID) right around New Year’s.”
Scotch has taken the COVID vaccination, but Lynn has not.
“She ended up trying to become a donor herself and when she got COVID, they wouldn’t let her donate, of course,” Scotch said. “And then when she came back on, her platelet levels dropped real bad. Viral infections can cause that.”
Lynn’s platelet levels are better and she should be able to the vaccine in the future.
Riding a bicycle 1,500 miles was an ideal way for Scotch to promote his message.
“Well, I’m riding a mountain bike,” Scotch said. “I don’t have a road bike so I decided to ride it as close to the Mississippi as I could. That’s just the roads you see.
“I really enjoy it. I started doing long-distance biking maybe five, six years ago, seven years ago. I’ve been a mountain biker for 15 years probably.”
The car Lynn was driving had a “donate life” sign on it.
“It’s good to have her around,” Scotch said. “I carry food and water, but it depends on who’s riding with me. Sometimes we stop every few hours. It’s good to have somebody around.”
Scotch rode his mountain bike with others and faced many challenges.
“The first four days, we did about 100 miles every day, but I had some friends with me that helped, kind of rotated with the wind,” Scotch said. “One day we rode backwards 100 miles instead of riding forward because the wind was so strong.
“One day three of us were behind the car and Lynn was driving in front of us so she kind of paced us.”
Scotch said he originally planned to use social networks to stay with other people, but the COVID pandemic canceled that.
“COVID was here (when he first planned the ride), but we didn’t know how long it was going to last,” Scotch said.
“At the time, we were hoping we could stay with people on the way, but that got canceled out because of COVID.”
Scotch said friends tag along with a RV coach and that turned into lodging.
He said Wickliffe, Ky. to Tennessee was the most scenic part of the route.
“It doesn’t have the levee road,” Scotch said. “The land is higher, so it’s more like rolling hills. We go down the river and go back up again, so I watched people catfish. I talked to people fishing and stuff like that. That was fun.”
Scotch also enjoyed being in Mississippi.
“I was looking forward to Mississippi because I wanted to get up on these levee roads,” he said. “I thought they’d be really cool to ride on and just not have to deal with traffic. It would have been nice if I had a tailwind instead of a headwind.”
Scotch had been in Mississippi prior to his bike ride. He was in Vicksburg several times, had been to Natchez and planned to go to Jackson. He stayed in Clarksdale briefly during the summer of 2020 and recalled eating at Levon’s.
“I used to come down here a lot because when I worked, I worked in paper mills for my job and I used to go to Grenada, Miss.,” Scotch said. “I was in Grenada maybe 50 times in my life. I went there every three months for work.”
