Golden kidney

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT COAST - Whit Kenerson has played tennis or squash almost

his entire life, but you’d never guess he once spent nine months on

dialysis and underwent 16 major operations to fight off kidney

infections.

“I was very ill,” said Kenerson, who received a kidney transplant in

March 1996 from his brother, Bruce. “Without my brother, I wouldn’t have

been able to have kids.”

Kenerson, a Newport Coast resident and member of two local tennis clubs,

has come a long way from his days in the sports marketing business for

the Newport Beach Dukes in 1990, the first year the franchise played in

World TeamTennis at the old John Wayne Tennis Club.

And, as Kenerson, 37, prepares for the U.S. Transplant Games in June at

the Disney Sports Complex in Orlando, Fla., the timing of his serve in

the game of life couldn’t be better.

His new venture includes producing books for children, emphasizing “a

healthy life through sports and a healthy attitude.”

Kenerson knows what he’s talking about.

In 1987, Kenerson tried to donate a kidney to his older brother, Jack,

but was shocked to find out his own kidney had “reflux” problems and that

one day he would need a transplant of his own.

His brother was rescued by his grandfather -- then 87 -- who remains the

world’s oldest kidney donor, and is alive and thriving today.

In August 1995, Whit Kenerson started to get sick and, worse, discovered

his kidney was Type 0, a rare form that usually requires a wait of at

least four years for a transplant.

Kenerson received the good news from his brother, Bruce, at Christmas

that year, and three months later underwent a kidney transplant at

Boston’s Brigham Hospital. Kenerson and his other brother, Jack, had

their transplants overseen by Dr. Joseph Murray, a Nobel Prize winner who

performed some of the world’s first kidney transplants in the 1950s.

Then, five months after getting his new kidney, Kenerson competed at the

1996 U.S. Transplant Games in Salt Lake City, winning gold and silver

medals in tennis.

Today, Kenerson is serving as the fund-raising chairman for other

athletes in Southern California to attend the U.S. Transplant Games in

Orlando, but new fund-raising policies and regulations make it difficult.

“If it’s for programming (like the Transplant Games) versus research and

care, we can only (raise funds) by direct mail,” Kenerson said. “I want

to do an auction and a golf tournament, but we can’t do that any longer

... and a lot of people (with kidney transplants) are barely surviving.

They’re dealing with insurance companies and getting by day to day.”

Since his own kidney transplant, Kenerson and his wife, Marcy, have had

two children: Paige, 2, and 2-month-old Brooke. Next month, they will

both be tested for kidney problems.

“Now, (doctors) they have the capability of in-office procedures if there

are any problems, so they’ll never have to go through what I had to go

through,” Kenerson said.

Kenerson, a top player at Palisades Tennis Club in Newport Beach,

recently joined Newport Beach Tennis Club, where his friend from the ol’

days with the Dukes, Steve Joyce, is now the owner and operator.

After six years as a tennis instructor at Malibu Riding and Tennis Club,

Kenerson entered the public relations and sports marketing arena with the

Dukes, a franchise eventually sold back to World TeamTennis by team owner

Fred Lieberman in 1994 after five years in the league.

“Our first year (in operation) was pretty wild,” Kenerson said, referring

to controversies between Lieberman and the owner of the Wayne Club, Cecil

Spearman.

Once, Lieberman reportedly ran up to the bar at the Wayne Club during a

Dukes match and told the club members they had to buy tickets if they

were going to sit there and watch the WTT match.

“(Joyce) was a Wayne Club member at the time and a regular upstairs and

all that,” said Kenerson, who often served as mediator between the club

members and the team owner.

“When I found out Steve was coming back (to Newport Beach) and had taken

over the (Newport Beach Tennis Club), I joined there, as well (as

Palisades). I’m playing at both clubs right now.”

Kenerson will be part of Team Southern California at the U.S. Transplant

Games, and hopes to bring back another gold.