An Ashland man is finally getting a life-saving donation and he's crediting NewsChannel5 for helping him find his match.
We first told you about 55-year-old Jim Williams last Septemberwhen he took out a billboard to find a kidney donor.
He was diagnosed with a genetic disorder known as polycystic kidney disease back in 2005. But in 2013, his doctors told him that kidney function had dropped below 20 percent and that he would need to go on the transplant list.
Williams' billboard was up for months but he says he didn't get any leads until his story aired on NewsChannel5.
That's when he got more than two dozen emails from people who said they would possibly be willing.
Kathy Mindek was one of those people.
When the 52-year-old Brookpark woman went to get tested, they told her she had a less than 1 percent chance of being a match.
But against all odds, she was.
Now Mindek and Williams are preparing for their surgeries, which are scheduled for Wednesday at the Cleveland Clinic.
But why would Mindek undergo surgery for someone she doesn't even know?
"The world has been so mean with people being so cruel," she told NewsChannel5's Bob Jones. "You need a little bit of kindness to go around."
Besides, Mindek has a twin sister, so she knows if she ever needed a kidney she'd have a match.
As for Williams, he says Mindek is an amazing woman who he considers his hero.
