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Robert Leibowitz, a 60-year-old single father of five from New Jersey, the United States, who has suffered from chronic kidney problems since he was 12, never expected that the T-shirt he wore in a family trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando last August would change his life.
Before the trip, Robert had been on the transplant list for four years and expected to wait for another seven years before receiving a donated kidney.
“I was desperate, like, what do I got to do that I can get a normal life back together?” he said in an interview with NBC News.
Functioning at just five percent, the man’s kidney was failing and he worried he would run out of time. Instead of just waiting, Robert took matters into his own hands.
Robert Leibowitz wore the T-shirt on his family holiday.
At his daughter’s suggestion, he designed a simple, white T-shirt with black lettering that read: “In Need of Kidney. O positive”. Below those words, he wrote his phone number.
Then Robert, with his four sons and one daughter, flew to Disney’s Magic Kingdom. He wore his T-shirt for nine days and hoped it would help him get a lot of exposure.
People snapped photos and took videos of the “walking billboard” and shared it on social media. A visitor, Rocio Sandoval from Montana, who was celebrating a birthday with her husband, posted the photo on Facebook, where it was quickly shared more than 90,000 times.
“Then the calls started coming in,” Max, Robert’s 17-year-old son said. Strangers across the country who shared the man’s blood type phoned the number on the T-shirt, but none of them was a match.
Robert Leibowitz and Richard Sully in New York.
Months passed until a man in Indiana named Richard Sully, a single dad of two girls, saw Sandoval’s post. He was giving blood for Hurricane Harvey victims. “If I can donate blood and platelets to complete strangers that I’ll never meet, why not donate a kidney to this single father of five?”
Richard flew to New York City, at his own expense, to undertake tests and proved to be the perfect match. He stayed in a hotel for two weeks and spent time with Robert every day. On Jan. 18, Richard underwent surgery beside his new friend at New York Presbyterian Hospital.
Robert Leibowitz and Richard Sully are perfect match.
“I can’t put it into words. We feel amazing. Richard Sully is my hero,” Robert said. His kids were thrilled. His son Max posted a thank you on his Facebook page: “Thank you so much Richie, for being the amazing person you are to donate a kidney to a person you don’t even know, just out of the kindness of your heart.”
At the end of the story, the Leibowitz family and the Sully family are planning to head to Disneyland together. “That’s where the magic really happened,” Max told People magazine.
(CGTN)
