66-year-old Gail Weisberg has had a tough road. She’s had kidney disease her whole life and recently battled breast cancer, had heart surgery and contracted COVID-19 in the hospital.
Weisberg has been on the transplant list for 2.5 years, spending 10 hours each night connected to a machine doing at-home dialysis. She told CBS Boston, “I had 45 people go on my site to try to donate, and I’ve been cancelled three times because of COVID or health concerns, and I ran out of all the people that had volunteered for me.” That’s when one of Weisberg’s friends made dozens of signs, putting them on her car and other friends’ vehicles, hoping to find a living kidney donor. Debbie Munley was at Target and saw Weisberg’s car and the sign on it that said, “Wanna be an angel for an angel? [Best friend] needs a kidney?”
Munley told CBS Boston “I just had a good feeling that day when I walked out [of Target].” Weisberg and Munley chatted, texted, and then finally Munley got tested. She was a perfect patch for Weisberg and will be donating her left kidney to her new friend on February 15th. Munley has seen family members suffer on dialysis, so organ donation gives her already full life even more purpose, “For me, it’s just knowing that I helped a stranger. I want to pass it along. I want to let people know that you can do this.”
