KINGSTON — When Jason Gear undergoes a kidney transplant July 26 at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., he and his wife, Annie, will be bonded in a way that most married couples will never be.

His new kidney is coming from his wife.

An account has been established in Gear’s name at Kitsap Bank to help the Gears meet medical and travel expenses.

Gear, who was born with one kidney, is fighting end-stage renal disease with the same drive that made him a valued firefighter. Gear was born in Calgary and raised in Iowa, and moved to Kitsap County to be closer to a sister, brother and their families. He joined North Kitsap Fire & Rescue in February 1997.

He had a kidney transplant in March 2000 at University of Iowa, receiving a kidney from a friend of his father’s. He recovered enough to join North Kitsap Fire & Rescue full-time in October 2000. He and Annie married in 2002 and made their home in Kingston; she is a veterinary technician at Poulsbo Marina Veterinary Clinic.

By 2008, changes in medication adversely affected his gifted kidney and he was forced to retire from the department. In September 2009, he was on dialysis 12 hours a week as doctors started looking for a new kidney.

Turns out, his wife has the right blood type to be a donor. To ensure that his antibodies won’t attack the new kidney, Gear will first undergo plasmapheresis — his blood will be circulated through a machine to replace his antibodies with a placebo.

Gear, 41, won’t be able to go back to firefighting, but he hopes to get back into fire service as a trainer or in an administrative role. “I really miss the job,” he said.

Gear said his wife, who has never had surgery, is “nervous and excited” about the upcoming visit to Mayo. “We’re both excited to put this behind us and move on with our lives and get back to some sort of normalcy.”

North Kitsap Fire & Rescue spokeswoman Michele Laboda said Gear put in 56-hour weeks as a volunteer resident firefighter to get the certification and experience needed to become a full-timer. He’s one of about 130 to go through the volunteer residency program, Laboda said.

“I always enjoyed bantering around Canadian stuff,” said Laboda, who like Gear has Canadian roots. “We had lots of fun talking about things Canadian.”

She said Gear’s health-related retirement was tough for the department. “It was painful to watch someone who clearly loved the profession not be able to continue,” she said.

The Gears were the subject of a story in his hometown newspaper, the Britt, Iowa Globe Gazette. Gear’s mother, Diana Wells, and grandmother, Betty Carter, live in Britt.