Scarsdale Alum Searching for Kidney Donor
Dear Scarsdale:
It isn’t every day that you are asked to help save a life. Today is that day.
Byron Mallis, Class of 2002, needs a kidney. An autoimmune disease has destroyed both of his kidneys. He is on daily dialysis, and getting his life back requires a living kidney donor. We are asking you to learn about kidney donation at an event being held on May 6 at 7 p.m. at
Congregation Kol Ami (252 Soundview Ave., White Plains). And we are asking you to help save his life.
Byron grew up in the Greenacres section of Scarsdale. He spent babyhood through fourth grade on Ridgecrest West, and fifth grade through high school graduation on Oak Way. His parents, Laurie Thomas and Chuck Mallis, were a constant presence on ballfields and at school events for Byron and his younger siblings, Jillian (’07) and Ian (’09). Laurie worked at The Journal News and hosted many class trips touring the newspaper (we think at least one Greenacres student was inspired to pursue a career in journalism as a result!).
Byron is the loving husband of Kayla, and the father of an almost three-year-old boy named Charlie (named for Chuck, who passed away in 2009). Byron wants to be able to do all the things he got to do with his own father. Among his favorite father-son Scarsdale memories: learning to swim at the Scarsdale Pool, rollerblading in the empty high school parking lot, learning to drive on the Bronx River Parkway, playing on the soccer, baseball, and lacrosse teams, birthday parties at Our Place video arcade, the annual planting of red, white, and blue flowers in front of the house, and many more. Kidney disease is getting in the way. No swimming, no strenuous exercise, no hands in the dirt.
We are turning to the Scarsdale community: people who grew up with Byron, people who know our family, neighbors, merchants, teachers—anyone who will choose to learn more about donation and consider how they might be the one to save his life.
We are working with an organization called Renewal, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit dedicated to saving lives by facilitating live-donor kidney transplants. If you cannot attend the May 6 event but are interested in learning more about becoming a donor, you can click on this link. You can also request a simple at-home cheek swab kit to find out if you might be a match. (Note: Byron’s legal name is Spears Byron Mallis.)
The Mallis Family