ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. — A local family’s gamble has paid off.
After months of waiting, we’ve learned that the campaign worked, and it’s all thanks to traffic on the Parkway.
“I got stuck in traffic and saw a billboard that said, ‘Do you have type A+ blood?’” Laura Kelly said. She spotted the billboard just weeks after Channel 11 first brought you the story of the ‘Kidney4Karen’ campaign.
Laura says she was inspired to act by her father who is battling his own serious disease.
“With my dad having ALS, I understood how those kids felt not being able to do anything for their mom,” she said.
The billboard buy was a last-ditch effort of sorts to find the kidney. The family even spent part of their life savings to make it happen.
“I really had the faith that someone was going to see it. I have a real strong faith in God and I believed He was going to make everything work out. It was just the perfect timing. Laura had seen it and her heart was touched,” kidney recipient Karen Vaughn said.
Karen and Laura met four weeks ago, on the morning of the surgery.
“Each time I go on a walk a little further than the day before, she celebrates and every time she goes on a walk further than the day before, I celebrate,” Kelly said.
“If I use the restroom, I’m thanking God and thanking Laura because I’m able to do this now,” Vaughn said.
“It’s just really wonderful to have gone into this as strangers and parted as friends,” Kelly said.
“A little kidney can make such a big difference in your life,” Vaughn said.
Karen’s transplant was done at the V.A. hospital in Oakland. She says there are hundreds more like her on the list.
If you’d like to learn more, you can call 412-360-1729.
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