More than a thousand Kentuckians need an organ transplant to wait for one Maine's constant illness and potential death.

We bring you the story of one man from Louisville who skipped the line in a sense, when he found a living donor right in his neighborhood.

Our John Lefler has this story on the value of community and asking for help.

Charlie Dolly received his second kidney transplant in 2023.

I was in, in stage renal disease.

And in stage five, it's when you're almost at like 7 or 8% kidney function in total.

Just as Charlie started dialysis, he got a willing matching kidney donor.

That's Alex Page.

You know, the initial questionnaire.

I remember the last answer I wrote in there was like, if I can help Charlie, I'm going to.

The two aren't family or childhood friends.

They met a little later in life.

So we're here in Saint Bernard Church, which is where, you know, Charlie and I first met each other because our two oldest.

We happened to both pick Saint Bernard preschool.

You know, we started getting to know each other through events.

We worked the picnic booths together.

We did, you know, different things up at school.

Different.

You know, play softball together and all kinds of stuff on the field right around.

You know, we're here on this campus together.

But at some point, Charlie was in no shape for much of anything.

My energy level was very low.

I would come home from work and I would just sleep, or I'd be at work and just be fatigued all day.

Eventually, Charlie's wife made a public call for help on social media.

The school and church community of Saint Bernard responded.

A lot of people in the Saint Bernard reached out and got tested.

Neighbors, friends, coaches, colleagues.

You know, obviously he was the winner or I was the winner.

Charlie could have been like hundreds of other Kentuckians waiting on the list for their living or cadaver organ donor.

But the man's willingness to give and receive made the process so much shorter.

You.

You skip the line almost.

Right.

Like, if I'm willing to donate my kidney to you as a person, just you like you.

My kidney wouldn't go on the list.

And you know, it would go directly to the recipient.

And I wanted it to go to, which was really cool.

And I did not understand that part of the process.

My wife spoke up for me, and that got the ball rolling because I didn't ask.

I was too, I guess, maybe prideful or, you know, hardheaded.

And then once she kind of instilled that idea into me, then it kind of hit me.

I was like, I need to reach out, you know, because we kind of talk about this all the time.

It's like, if you don't ask, it's an automatic no.

The transplant surgeries were successful, but physically taxing.

I went from 100 to 50% kidney function.

Right.

Like, you know, I have two functioning kidneys that function properly.

For the following two weeks after that, I felt worse than I've ever felt in my life.

And he was at 7% or less at times, and being reliant on a machine for eight hours a day to pump blood and pump, you know, all this stuff that your kidney is supposed to do.

It's not a quality of life.

I would want for a friend of mine, a family member of mine.

So, you know, it was like, If I'm him, I need someone like me to to step up and do this.

Absolutely.

And, you know, and that's what it is.

It's a quality of life.

It truly is, you know, at the time and still now we both have young families.

And even the days that I get super frustrated or annoyed at something, I have to be absolutely thankful.

I just kind of left myself and and say, I'm fortunate to be in this position, regardless if it's good or bad.

So I just take the, you know, mentality of just stay positive always, because, you know, I've got a giant gift given to me and I better utilize it.

Charlie and Alex have shared their story with others who are still searching for their living kidney donor.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm Jude Leffler.

Thank you, Jim, so much for that.

For Louisville needing an organ transplant, Alex and Charlie recommend Mulligan's living kidney donors.

The group meets monthly for those in the process of finding an organ donor.

More information is available on the group's Facebook page.