Doctors Told Him He Was Dying—He Responded by Feeding an Entire City | Polycystic Kidney Disease
Sickboy
CBC
4.8 • 524 Ratings
🗓️ 19 February 2025
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"Only move from love, don’t move from fear." That’s the mantra guiding Mark Brand, a world-class chef who went from spiraling into self-destruction to serving over 2,200 meals a day to Vancouver’s most vulnerable. At 27, Mark was diagnosed with Polycystic Kidney Disease—a degenerative condition that would eventually shut down his organs. Doctors warned him he’d be on dialysis by 35 and told him to slow down. Instead, he went harder—booze, drugs, chaos. But rock bottom isn’t always the end. For Mark, it was the beginning of something bigger. In this raw and powerful episode, Mark opens up about his journey from near-death to radical purpose, the moment that changed everything, and how food became his weapon in the fight against hunger, inequality, and despair.
Be sure to catch the full video version of this episode on YouTube.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's becoming pretty clear that U.S. President Donald Trump is ripping up the political |
| 0:05.3 | playbook. |
| 0:05.8 | And when it comes to what it all means for Canada, well, as they say, it's complicated. |
| 0:09.8 | But our podcast, two blocks from the White House, is a way to make sense of it all. |
| 0:13.8 | Join me, Willie Lowry, and senior Washington correspondents, Paul Hunter and Katie Simpson |
| 0:18.6 | every week as we break down the headlines from Capitol Hill with a Canadian spin. |
| 0:24.2 | Find and follow two blocks from the White House on your favorite podcast app, including YouTube. |
| 0:30.2 | This is a CBC podcast. |
| 0:32.3 | This is a CBC podcast. Only move from love, don't move from fear. |
| 0:44.7 | This is Mark Brand, a world-class chef on a mission to feed more than just stomachs. |
| 0:50.5 | He's feeding hope. |
| 0:51.7 | But behind the kitchen doors, Mark's facing a fight that most people don't see. |
| 0:56.0 | Palsis to kidney disease is multi-sists that take over your liver and kidneys, |
| 1:00.0 | shut down the function until they're no longer functioning. |
| 1:03.0 | You know when you see somebody do an ultrasound, the woman's face just like went white. |
| 1:07.0 | At 27, doctors gave him a brutal prognosis. |
| 1:11.6 | So the doctor goes through the results. |
| 1:13.1 | You can no longer do any contact sports. |
| 1:14.8 | And you should be dializing by 35. |
| 1:17.1 | So he did what most of us do when life throws us a knockout punch. |
| 1:20.9 | He tried to outrun it. |
| 1:22.4 | I decided right when I got diagnosed that I had a death wish for a few years, |
... |
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