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Essex Tech teacher David Collins with his daughter Shelby Collins. David Collins has taught masonry on the North Shore for 22 years and is in end-stage kidney failure, spurring his family to search for a compatible kidney donor.
Essex Tech teacher David Collins with his daughter Shelby Collins. David Collins has taught masonry on the North Shore for 22 years and is in end-stage kidney failure, spurring his family to search for a compatible kidney donor.
Essex Tech teacher David Collins with his daughter Shelby Collins. David Collins has taught masonry on the North Shore for 22 years and is in end-stage kidney failure, spurring his family to search for a compatible kidney donor.
Essex Tech teacher David Collins with his daughter Shelby Collins. David Collins has taught masonry on the North Shore for 22 years and is in end-stage kidney failure, spurring his family to search for a compatible kidney donor.
DANVERS — Essex Tech masonry teacher David Collins has helped students on the North Shore for over 20 years. Now, he needs help finding a kidney.
“He’s firm with his students, but behind that firm exterior, he has a heart of gold,” said Essex Tech electrical shop teacher Chris Xerras, who’s worked with Collins since 2005. “I’ve seen him do things that the average teacher doesn’t really do.”
This includes buying a jacket or boots for a student in need, or sneaking kids lunch money when they wouldn’t be able to buy lunch otherwise, Xerras said.
But Collins, who lives in Haverhill, has been out of the classroom since learning he has end-stage kidney failure.
He was diagnosed with kidney disease at age 30, and found out about his latest condition just before his 60th birthday this May.
He’s currently on four-hour cycles of dialysis three days a week. That means he also can’t teach inmates masonry through the Essex County Sheriff’s Department, which he’s been doing for five years to help give them a fresh start once they’re released.
“Because of his demeanor, and his willingness to help everyone else throughout the time that I’ve known him, I think it’s time that he gets something back,” Xerras said.
More than 70 people have offered to get tested through Mass General to see if they may be a match for Collins. Yet only two can be tested at a time, and another can’t be tested until one gets disqualified.
The waitlist for a deceased donor is more than seven years. His daughter Shelby Collins, who also works at Essex Tech as an executive assistant to Superintendent Heidi Riccio, said that “just isn’t in the cards for him.”
“We can just be hopeful that a kidney is going to come along for him,” she said. “I want him by my side when I get married, I want him to see me have babies someday. I want my dad here.”
Being sidelined these last few months has been hard for her father. But he said he’s doing good.
“I’ve worked hard all my life so I’m in good shape. That’s been helping me,” he said.
Collins started his teaching career at North Shore Tech 22 years ago. He currently teaches juniors and seniors at project sites both on and off Essex Tech’s campus.
This includes helping build homes, working on municipal buildings and taking part in other projects with the school’s other shops.
“He’s always a pleasure to work with,” Xerras said. “He makes the other contractors’ jobs easier by things that he does to set up the job and manage it. He’s been on Habitat for Humanity jobs, and while he’s there to do masonry stuff, he usually helps everyone else.”
Kathleen Holman is Essex Tech’s director of human resources. She’s worked with David Collins for over 20 years.
“This is a guy that as his health deteriorated, he was still every single day with the kids teaching and doing his job to the fullest,” Holman said.
David Collins is an O- blood type. But if someone wants to donate a kidney to him and doesn’t have that blood type, they could take part in a paired exchange, Shelby Collins said.
That’s when the donor would give a kidney to someone else in need who is their blood type. In exchange, a matching kidney from one of that recipient’s loved ones would go to Collins.
“It’s just me, my mom and my dad. I’m an only child and I’m here to do absolutely whatever I can to make this happen,” Shelby Collins said. “I just want my dad to be healthy.”
To see if you’re a match, go to https://mghlivingdonors.org and enter David Collins’ name, his date of birth (5/11/1962) and fill out a health screening questionnaire.
Contact Caroline Enos at CEnos@northofboston.com and follow her on Twitter @CarolineEnos .
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