SALISBURY — Kenny Hardin is known for many things around Salisbury, his hometown, where he has served on the city council as well as in many volunteer capacities. From social commentary to activism, he’s made a name for himself, but his primary role, at least of late, is serving at the Veterans Social Center.
For now, that is going to have to take a back seat while he prioritizes his own health.
“I have had to take off from the center,” Hardin said.
It has been a tough year healthwise for Hardin. Part of what has made it so difficult is that throughout his life, likely owing to his time in the service and his upbringing, Hardin has put things like his personal health on the back burner while striving to help others. However, the way 2025 has unfolded for Hardin, it has made it impossible to ignore that personal health any longer.
“I will never forget Feb. 8,” Hardin said. “Feb. 7, I was in good shape. I was working at the center. I was going. Feb. 8, 9 o’clock, I was sitting in my bedroom and I stood up. Wham. I hit the floor. My blood pressure was 84/44.”
Hardin said he confronted a sensation oft-reported by those during a near-death experience.
“I was going towards the white light,” he said. “And it was bright.”
All of a sudden, he said things started going black.
“My wife had called 911,” Hardin said. “The fire department came in and pulled me up. That was the jerk I felt.”
Hardin said that the first responders believed he might have had a stroke.
“I was out of it, man,” Hardin said and since that day, his shape has been deteriorating. “I spent the whole month of June in the hospital.”
Doctors were unable to identify what happened.
“I’ve been going through tests, tests and more tests,” Hardin said.
Now, Hardin indicated that doctors have informed him that his kidneys are failing.
“My kidneys went from stage 3 to stage 5,” Hardin said. “I’m at 11-percent function. At 10-percent function, you are in kidney failure. I went from stage 3 to stage 5 in one month and they still don’t know why it dipped so bad.”
Despite the prognosis, Hardin has been symptom free of kidney failure and he is not on dialysis.
“They told me right now that I am not a candidate (for dialysis) but that I probably will be,” Hardin said. “Doctors in Chicago said I am about a year away. What I am hoping is that I can get a kidney and not have to go on dialysis. “
Hardin mentioned that he has had to modify his diet and that he’s lost more than 30 pounds.
“My routine now is I have some workout equipment in my basement,” Hardin said, adding that he tries to work out each day, mainly on a stationary bike and his treadmill.
Doctors told Hardin that his condition is not something he can rectify on his own, however. He needs a kidney, but there is hope for Hardin who recently returned from the Hines VA Center in Chicago, having successfully applied for kidney transplant candidacy.
“You get to choose from seven different centers,” Hardin said. “I chose Chicago because that VA is the leader among those seven in kidney transplants.”
His visit there was just the latest step in a journey that began over the summer in Salisbury with testing at the local VA, where they test everything to determine if one will make a viable transplant candidate.
“From July until October, I had to go through every department at the VA and get cleared because if something else was wrong, they were not going to put me on the list,” Hardin said.
In Chicago, Hardin was subjected to those tests again.
“We had to spend an entire day and do a modified version,” Hardin said. “Different doctors from different disciplines came in all day and interviewed with us.”
Ultimately, Hardin was approved and is now a candidate for transplant in Chicago as well as in Winston-Salem at Atrium-Health Wake Forest Baptist. So the waiting game begins, and during that time Hardin will be on standby. If he gets a call that a kidney is available, he has to be ready for surgery at a moment’s notice.
“When they call you, they give you 30 minutes to decide,” Hardin said. “If you do not pick up, they will go on to the next person.”
Hardin is optimistic that the call will come soon, but he acknowledged the reality that it could be a while. As it were, there was a time in Hardin’s life when he was involved in the process of organ and tissue donation.
“When I first started in healthcare back in 1997, I was a tissue and organ donor requestor,” Hardin said. “I would go in and ask families if they would donate the tissue and organs of deceased loved ones. I always had a 100 percent yes.”
Today, Hardin finds himself on the other side of that equation, but still hoping that a family or individual will opt to make a difference for him.
Sandra Kidd, a volunteer at the Veterans Social Center said that she could not think of anyone more deserving for help after all they had done to help others.
“Kenny has a great impact on veterans in the area with his willingness to reach out to those with PTSD and others by providing a safe and calm environment where they would not be judged,” Kidd said. “Kenny aided veterans as well as their families. He has aided homeless veterans after they are rehoused by providing household necessities, groceries and fuel for vehicles. He has also aided veterans and their families with funeral expenses.”
Kidd remarked that that is just who Hardin is.
“Kenny is a wonderful person with a big heart,” Kidd said. “He is loving, kind, compassionate and giving. He will always give you his honest opinion and lead you in the right direction.”
That honesty is a bit of a Hardin trademark, who has earned a reputation for not holding back in his columns in the Salisbury Post.
“People who don’t know me, they might go by what I have written,” Hardin said. “I don’t have a mean bone in my body. I am just an honest person.”
Some people, including those who have received help from Hardin at the center, have learned of his condition and extended thoughtful messages of support.
“The kindness and compassion that I have received, I have been overwhelmed,” Hardin said.
In the meantime, Hardin said the volunteers at the center have stepped up in big ways from grocery shopping to doing laundry. They will continue running the center, but he is eager for the day when he is healthy enough to return to doing what he loves — serving the veterans.
