A diehard Chicago Cubs fan found a kidney donor in someone surprising: a diehard White Sox fan. Bridget Kolls was diagnosed with kidney failure and knew she needed to spread the word to help her search for a donor. So the 23-year-old went to a baseball game last year with a sign reading, “This lil’ Cubby needs a kidney!”
Her plea was shared by her favorite baseball team on Twitter and was seen by 32-year-old Thomas Alessio, a Sox superfan. But he put their teams’ crosstown rivalry aside to help a fellow baseball lover in need. He was tested and was a match, and he says, “I never had any second doubts.”
The two took part in a successful kidney transplant last month and Bridget’s doctor says her prognosis is “much better now.” But just because she’s walking around with the kidney of a Sox fan doesn’t mean she’s changing her allegiances, although she’s blown away by his sacrifice. “I just think the whole things’ remarkable,” she says. “No one has done anything this big for me ever.”
