This 38-year-old father of 2 from Sudbury, Ont., is waiting for a kidney donation

Christian Lemieux, 38, spends more than 10 hours every day on dialysis, due to kidney failure. Now he's on a waiting list, hoping a live donor can improve his quality of life.

"It's been hard on him. He's got no energy," said his wife Karen Fisher.

"He went from being a very involved dad, playing outside and teaching them how to do woodworking and stuff to not being able to be involved much at all."

Lemieux and Fisher live in Sudbury, Ont., with their two children, who are five and 11.

Fisher says her husband has struggled with diabetes his entire life, which eventually led to his kidney failure last year.

He was put on an insulin pump a few years ago, but the damage to his kidneys had already happened at that point.

Fisher says they noticed swelling in his feet last year, and learned kidney failure was the cause.

Now he's on dialysis every night.

"Dialysis itself is really, really hard on the body," Fisher said. "It causes stomach cramps, nausea, and tiredness. He's just tired the whole time."

With a kidney donation he would need to be on anti-rejection drugs for the rest of his life, but it would eventually have a much better quality of life.

"He would eventually have more energy, he'd be less tired, his blood pressure would be better," Fisher said.

Health Sciences North (HSN)  in Sudbury does not conduct organ transplants, but works closely with the eight Ontario hospitals that do.

None of them are located in northern Ontario. They are the Kingston Health Sciences Centre, the London Health Sciences Centre, the St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton, the Hospital for Sick Children, the Ottawa Hospital, Unity Health Toronto, the University Health Network and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute.

The more people who are willing to donate the more lives they can save.- Karen Fisher

"More than 140 hospitals in Ontario send in referrals to Ontario Health (Trillium Gift of Life Network) which oversees delivery and coordination of organ and tissue donation and transplantation in the province," said a spokesperson for HSN in an email to CBC News.

"As the regional referral and trauma centre for northeastern Ontario, HSN is a donor hospital, and we also receive transfers from smaller hospitals in the region if there is a consented organ donor but the hospital is unable to support the organ retrieval surgery."

The Trillium Gift of Life Network says transplant centres require "a wide range of resources, from specially trained surgeons and physicians, nurses, technicians and clinical support from other non-transplant areas of care, to the necessary infrastructure and equipment to ensure comprehensive pre- and post-transplant care."

Lemieux is on an organ transplant wait list with the London Health Sciences Centre.

According to the Trillium Gift of Life Network there are currently 1,356 people waiting for organ transplants in Ontario. 

Fisher says friends and family have already volunteered for the stringent screening process to become kidney donors. But to donate to Lemieux they need to be the right blood type and have two healthy kidneys.

"He got a letter back from the hospital in London saying that only one out of five people who apply end up being able to donate once they do the testing and everything because I guess they're looking for kidney stones and stuff," Fisher said.

To receive a kidney from a deceased donor Fisher says her husband can expect to wait between three and five years. A kidney from a deceased donor typically lasts less time than one from a living donor as well.

"The more people who are willing to donate the more lives they can save," Fisher said.