This is not a love story, but it is the story of two women who are now bound together for life.
A woman from Florida, USA, has donated a kidney to her husband's ex-wife, a few days after the wedding, and now the two women call each other "kidney sisters".
Debby Neal-Strickland and Jim Merthe were married on November 22, 2020, 10 years after they first met. Two days after the ceremony, the woman donated one kidney to Jim's ex-wife, Mylaen Merthe, who was battling a serious illness.
“She is a person who needed a kidney, and I had one. I was healthy enough to give it to him," says Debby, 56, on Good Morning America. "She is also the mother of my husband's children and they are expecting their first two grandchildren soon.
56-year-old Jim and 59-year-old Mylaen divorced a decade ago, but they maintained good relations and are parents of two children.
Mylaen had been battling kidney disease for 30 years and was on the verge of dialysis when her kidney function had dropped to just 8 percent.
Debby, who had always been friends with Jim's ex-wife, offered Mylae one of her kidneys when she learned that her brother's wasn't suitable.
Mylaen adds that she didn't have much hope that it would help, but surprisingly the tests came back positive.
"The doctors said they couldn't believe how well the organs fit, it felt like something from God, and I believed this was my destiny," adds Debby.
Donating an organ had always been important to Debby, who lost her brother to cystic fibrosis 26 years ago. The brother had needed a lung transplant, but the sister's organ was not a match.
While Mylaen six months after the transplant says she feels like "a completely new person" and credits Debby with saving her life.
"I always wanted to be a grandmother to raise grandchildren. Now I have two of them and I can be with them thanks to this woman", says the happy woman.
Information source @BalkanWeb: Read more at: www.botasot.al
