Mom of 5 donates life-saving kidney to fellow churchgoer
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The ill student is a resident in Leonard Hall. (iStock)
Two women who met through their Tennessee church now share more than their weekly sermon after one volunteered to donate a life-saving kidney to the other. Erica Walker, a single mother, had been diagnosed with stage 5 kidney failure and was concerned that she wouldn’t live to see her daughter’s first day of kindergarten.
“I was just getting more and more tired and every day was getting harder,” Walker, a teacher, told WREG. “And it was harder to look at my daughter and wonder, was I going to be there?”
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Walker asked her Heartsong Church congregation for prayers, and shared that she is a type 2 diabetic with kidney failure. Pregnancy had worsened her condition and she was facing dialysis while awaiting a transplant.
Jenny Williams, a mother of five, was listening, and secretly got tested to see if she was a match.
“I just felt called to do it,” she told WREG. “I felt it was something that God wanted me to do. Why else would we have met each other? The thought of Karlie not having a mom – I couldn’t do nothing when I knew there was something I could do.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She was found to be a match and the surgery took place on Sept. 12. Both women are reportedly home recovering.
“She’s just my hero,” Walker told WREG. “Every day I look at my daughter now, I know I’m going to be there because of what Jenny did. And I’ll never be able to thank her enough.”