When a single father of three was in dire need of a kidney transplant, his girlfriend’s teenage daughter stepped up to help in the only way she could . . . be spreading the word, and looking for a donor.
Ryan Stanford has been dealing with polycystic kidney disease his whole life, but was getting sicker and put on dialysis. His kidneys were failing, and it appeared he’d hit a dead end in receiving any hope.
Though he has three kids of his own, he’d developed a wonderful relationship with the teen daughter of his girlfriend of three years.
Last summer, Lilian Jarjour (now 19) hated seeing her mom’s boyfriend in such pain. She shares, “It was scary to me to see, I didn’t want to see him get any sicker. Dialysis isn’t a fun thing to be put on, so it did scare me.”
Lillian continues, “The reason why I wanted to do something like this was because he makes my mom so happy. This guy, he’s changed my mom’s world.”
So, Lillian worked on spreading the word about the need for a kidney and started her own search for a donor by putting a sign in her car that read, “Single dad of 3 needs kidney, type O,” and drove around.
It wasn’t until August that Ryan received a phone call from a Detroit area woman who’d come across his story and wanted to see if she might be a match to offer him one of her kidneys.
The anonymous woman told InsideEdition.com, “I’ve been a blood donor for a very long time and I have a friend from high school who received a liver. I always thought that was just such a cool thing, that we were able to do that with our bodies, and I thought if the opportunity ever arose and if there was ever anyone in my family who needed it or a friend, I certainly would [help].”
When tests proved the two were a match and they got final approval from medical professionals, Ryan and his girlfriend Noell Darghali met up with the anonymous donor and her husband for coffee.
Turns out, the two couples had a lot in common, and spent more time than planned chatting about all kinds of things. A random act of kindness from a stranger blossomed into a beautiful friendship.
Once the transplant was completed, the recuperating patients found comfort in each other and curbed boredom by spending time at each other’s homes and bonding over board games.
Both kidney donor and recipient are recovering extremely well.
Lillian shares, “It feels amazing to know it worked. I was very shocked and surprised and I was really happy.”
The waitlist for a kidney donation is about 93,000 patients long, with around 2,300 in the state of Michigan, and it’s really not common for a living donor to agree to offering a complete stranger one of their organs.
Most people who are physically and mentally healthy can become a living donor. There is a risk of hypertension, but most kidney donors continue leading healthy lives with the assistance of minor dietary changes.
If you’re interested in learning about becoming a living donor, you can find more information HERE.
(MSN)
