Teenage Kidney Recipient Campaigns For Boy In Need
By Kathy Walsh
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) - A teenager, who found a living kidney donor through a bumper sticker, is now helping a young boy campaign for the kidney he needs.
Just four months after her kidney transplant, Jillian Laplante of Highlands Ranch is paying it forward. The 17-year-old met Adrian Francisco just this year at Children's Hospital Colorado in Aurora. Something clicked.
"Something about my connection with God said, 'I really want to try to help this boy,'" Laplante told CBS4 Health Specialist Kathy Walsh.
Francisco, 13, travels from Fort Morgan to Children's four days a week for kidney dialysis.
"They poke you too much and then I don't get to see my friends at home," said the eighth-grader.
Dialysis has been his life for 11 years.
Laplante understands. Her kidneys stopped working when she was 5 years old. Her first transplant failed in the summer of 2015. When CBS4 first reported about Laplante, she had waged a bumper sticker campaign and found a living donor.
"I feel amazing," Laplante said today.
She got her new kidney in April. She said she had a 2 percent chance of finding a match. Her miracle was an unselfish mother of four boys, Chrissie Smith.
"Through faith and through trying to get the word out there, we can make another miracle happen, " said a confident Laplante.
This time the miracle will be for Francisco. Laplante has a new bumper sticker that reads "Boy Needs Kidney, Type B or O Blood, 720-848-0855" That's the number for the Kidney Transplant Department at the University of Colorado Hospital.\
Francisco has new hope, thanks to a tenacious teenager, Laplante, who knows life is a gift worth pursuing.
Kathy Walsh is CBS4's Weekend Anchor and Health Specialist. She has been with CBS4 for more than 30 years. She is always open to story ideas. Follow Kathy on Twitter @WalshCBS4.