and finally tonight April is National Donate Life month and it has a particularly special meaning for one mother and son in need of an organ donor and without a match they turned to the idea of living donation now they're sharing their inspiring story in hopes it'll encourage others to make the same life-changing and life-saving decision Melissa Rose Cooper reports for Leslie Pools or osei tutu her son Omari has always been her whole world and he was such a beautiful bouncy blue-eyed little brown boy always smiling such a pleasant child and as his mom there was nothing she wouldn't do to protect him so when Amari was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease in his early twenties osei tutu says she was devastated it was predicted that this now 22 year old young man would develop complete kidney failure within about 10 years or so but unfortunately in omari's case he went from diagnosis to failure in about four years as a result he had been on dialysis three times weekly dialysis for a little more than six years Omari needed a new kidney and Jose tutu was ready to donate but she wasn't a match so instead she made a decision to pay it forward donating one of her kidneys to a stranger as part of an organ swap we had tried different campaigns and Facebook campaigns and t-shirts and different things like that trying to advertise that Omari needed a kidney and ultimately I got the word and the kidney transplant was scheduled and in May 2021 Leslie's generosity paid off Omari received the gift of Life once again from his mom this is a motherly thing to do you know I just felt the immense love and uh just sacrifices that she put ahead for me and um you know this you know more love that I already had for her and to show that we were in it together but Omari is one of the lucky ones the process of getting an organ is owner.gov there are roughly 104 000 people waiting on the transplant list with one person added every 10 minutes and while there were more than 42 000 transplants performed last year 17 people die every day still waiting although we continue to procure and Transplant an increasing number of deceased donor organs that increase is not keeping up with the increase in demand that's why Dr Ronald Pelletier one of the doctors involved in Omari and his mom's procedure says living donor donation is critical until the Advent of successful xenotransplantation when we can order if you will organs off the shelf from a porcine donor for instance until that becomes a reality the our supply will always underserve the need you know if it weren't for special people like Leslie you know a lot of this wouldn't be possible and we're grateful it allows us both to do our job but also the ability to help you know patients who have end-stage kidney disease or other organs that you know they would need a transplant form now nearly two years since getting his new kidney Omari says it has been absolutely life-changing I've been able to pursue my goals that the um kidneys kind of like put on hold started um music company that I was working on then and just working full time which I wasn't able to do with dialysis if they would take my other kidney I would do it again you know I say here I am I've lived my life I wouldn't mind being on dialysis if I needed it and what have you but absolutely just to see your loved one with a renewed life it's unbelievable proof of Mother's Love is always a gift that never stops giving for NJ Spotlight news I'm Melissa Rose Cooper [Music]