True love is unconditional, and there is almost nothing we wouldn’t do for the people we hold most dear.
When Krystal Sparks’ fiancé was diagnosed with an aggressive form of kidney disease in 2017, she knew she couldn’t just sit back and way for good news to come through form the transplant list, so she took matters into her own hands.
Her fiancé, Robert Fallon, was 22 years old when he got the diagnosis and was immediately put on the waiting list for a transplant.
Since Krystal wasn’t a match to be a donor, she did the next best thing she could think of . . . to find a donor herself.
She started painting rocks with Robert’s blood type and an e-mail address, hoping someone would see one and feel called to help — painting over 100!
Krystal shares, “I started painting rocks and at first, it was just us that was spreading them and we would spread them on the way to Roanoke and on the way to Charlottesville to his appointments and stuff.”
Then, the couple’s family and friends leaned in to help spread the rocks all over the country . . . starting in Elk Creek, Virginia and making it all the way to Cape Coral, Florida, where Lisa Brandt found one and decided to lean into the efforts.
Though Lisa couldn’t help by being a donor, she did help spread the message by painting more rocks with the same information and spread them around as well, hoping it would help.
“I sent some out to Colorado, Indiana, with my mother-in-law to Germany . . . I spread some myself in Italy just this last September just to get the word out there,” shared Lisa.
This is such a great story of hope and strength in numbers, showcasing there truly are good people in this world.
The search for a kidney donor lasted a couple of years, but Robert found a willing donor who was a match . . . and the kidney transplant was a SUCCESS!!
(WKRN)