Dave Rueckl Joins CrossFit and Loses 71 Pounds to Donate Kidney to Daughter

Every CrossFit journey starts with a “why.” Some want to lose weight. Others want to prevent chronic disease. Some want a community. Others want to qualify for the CrossFit Games. 

So what was 61-year-old Dave Rueckl’s “why?” He wanted to prepare his body to donate a kidney to save his stepdaughter, Becky. 

Becky was born with Henoch-Schönlein Purpura (HSP), an autoimmune disease that causes her body to think her kidneys are foreign, and therefore attacks the healthy tissue. 

She received her first kidney transplant at 12 years old. At 18, her body rejected the transplant, and she received another. This kidney lasted for the next 20 years. 

In December of 2022, at 42 years old, Becky became very sick, which caused her kidney to reject again. She was put right back on the donor list. 

After each transplant, Rueckl and his wife felt helpless. They weren’t a match for Becky, so they had to rely on other donors or cadaver kidneys, which can be a lengthy process to receive. But, in 2007, after Becky had received her second transplant, an organization called the National Kidney Registry was founded to help those in need of a kidney find a donor faster. The organization provides a “kidney exchange,” where a person who is not a match for their loved one can put their name on the donor list to give their kidney to someone else. In return, their loved one will receive a kidney from another donor in the organization who is a match. 

“(Becky) wasn’t going to live. She was in the ER a few times, and it was a very difficult time,” Rueckl said. “My wife, Becky’s biological mother, decided that the NKR is where she was going to try and donate a kidney to Becky. Well, my wife is very petite, but she has high blood pressure, so they deemed her not healthy enough to donate a kidney.”

That is when Rueckl stepped in to be tested if he was healthy enough to donate his. After an evaluation, the doctor told him he could donate his kidney on one condition: he needed to lose 55 pounds. 

Rueckl looked at his wife, “You can schedule the surgery, because I’m going to do this.”

That is when he called up his childhood best friend and six-time Masters CrossFit Games athlete Tom Fameree. 

Rueckl was going to start CrossFit. 

“I had gone to the CrossFit Games as fluffy Dave watching Tom and seeing what he could do, and quite honestly, I was very proud of him, but I was very embarrassed about what I had let my body become,” Rueckl said. “So, I called Tom up, and I said, ‘I’m going to join your gym. I’m scared. I’m intimidated. I don’t know what to do because you’re also fit. I am so unfit.’”

Fameree started to explain scaling. He told Rueckl that it didn’t matter how fit he was; he just needed to walk through the doors, scale the workouts to his abilities, and keep showing up. 

So, Rueckl walked through the doors of CrossFit Green Bay and never looked back. He started going to class six days a week, working with the owners Cody Stelmach and Justin Peterson to tailor the workouts to his abilities. At home, his wife started cooking him nutritious meals.

At first, he could barely lift a 20-lb dumbbell over his head. 

“If I’m being 100% honest, I felt like a loser,” Rueckl said. “I was feeling sorry for myself. I fell into the pity pot, and I thought, ‘This is not for me. You are not going to do this.’ And then the community kicked in.”

Everyone in class cheered him on through the workouts, although he was the last person to finish. Soon, he started to feel empowered and capable. 

That is why Rueckl kept coming back. The community made him feel like he could do anything.

“You could go to any gym in the world and find weights. I could go to Planet Fitness. I could go to a lot of these mom and pop places around here, but what they don’t have is the educated coaching staff that knows anybody,” Rueckl said. “They look at you, they assess you, they put you through the on-ramp, they know what your abilities are, and they scale the workouts to you and really give you a hands-on approach.”

On May 26, 2023, the day of the surgery and just four months after starting CrossFit, Rueckl had lost 71 pounds. His kidney saved a pastor from Atlanta.

He was released from the hospital the next day. 

“(The doctors) told me that the work I had done prior to donating the kidney is the reason I could go home that quickly. ‘Whatever your workout program is, just keep doing that the rest of your life, and you’re going to live a long and happy life,’” the doctors said. 

Rueckl returned to CrossFit Green Bay on June 1, five days after donating his kidney. He was on a 10-lb lift restriction, so he eased back into classes with light dumbbells, biking, and walking around the gym. 

After all restrictions were lifted, he was right back to pushing himself in class, because although he had reached his goal, he was hooked on CrossFit. 

Rueckl’s story of compassion and strength started to spread through the community at the gym. Soon, a woman named Trish caught wind and wanted to learn more about the National Kidney Exchange. 

“She came over to me, and she said, ‘I went and got tested, Dave, and I’m going to donate to the NKR.’ I said, ‘Are you really? Are you doing it for someone?’ She said, ‘No, I’m not. I’m just going to do it because I can save a life.’”

This year, Trish was also cleared to donate a lobe of her liver. 

Several lives have been saved with the help of CrossFit, and it all started with Rueckl’s best friend. Fameree introduced Rueckl to CrossFit through his love for competing. Rueckl was able to save his daughter and a pastor’s life due to his commitment to getting healthy. He then spread his kindness to another member of the gym, Trish, who is now saving multiple lives through her organ donations. 

This is the CrossFit effect.