“For all the criticism of social media, sometimes it actually does some good — sometimes, it can actually save lives.
Sovereign Valentine is a personal trainer in the small town of Plains who drives to Missoula three times a week for dialysis. His inherited kidney disease has done in his kidneys although at first, he didn’t even know how sick he actually was
‘I’ve been a personal trainer for 30 years and did my nutrition really well all this time, for 40 years,’ Valentine said. ‘So it kind of offset the symptoms so I didn’t know I was in total kidney failure.’
Just like his older sister who had the same genetic condition, he needed a kidney transplant. So he decided to advertise for one – on his car and on Facebook where he posted a simple message: Kidney donor wanted.
And it worked.
‘I was blown away by the response. Ultimately, we got over 106 donors about 95 of them were from Facebook and the rest from the car magnets,’ Valentine said. ‘It totally changed my perspective on life.’
The willingness for people to step up likely saved Valentine’s life because finding a donor isn’t easy.
According to the website organdonor.gov, over 3,000 new patients are added to the kidney waiting list each month and 13 people die each day while waiting for a life-saving kidney transplant. Additionally, every 14 minutes someone is added to the kidney transplant list.
People from all over the country were willing to be considered as Valentine’s living kidney donor. It’s a great first step, in a very long process to find a perfect match. But what this small town personal trainer from Plains didn’t know was there was someone he never met quietly going through the process to see if she was a match.”
View the whole story here: https://www.ktvq.com/community/healthwatch/social-media-brings-montana-man-life-saving-kidney-donation