A desperate mother found a donor… on Facebook. It happened in Wales, where a 42-year-old woman named Karen Davey urgently needed a kidney transplant and, in desperation, posted an emotional appeal on Facebook hoping to find a compatible donor as her health worsened.

Davey, who lives in Rhondda Cynon Taf, a town a few miles from Cardiff, has four children. Just when she was losing hope, she met her “saviour.” Gary Summerfield, 60, a security guard who had just finished a night shift, read the post and contacted her. He later learned he was compatible and underwent the transplant last July.

“I was lucky to find someone like Gary. There are good people out there who want to help others. He is simply my hero. He is an extraordinary person inside and out,” Davey told the Mirror. “I enjoyed getting to know him and we will remain friends. My family will be forever grateful to him.” Davey had suffered a heart attack ten years earlier while watching one of her son’s football matches and had needed a heart transplant. “I already knew that at some point I would probably need a kidney, because the medications I take for my heart are toxic to the kidneys.”

As she feared, three years ago doctors found her kidney function was declining. “I quickly entered stage three kidney failure. From there it gradually got worse.” All her friends and family were tested to see if they could donate a kidney, but none were suitable. “That’s when I made the appeal on Facebook. It was a big decision, but we explored every possibility and thought, ‘Well, let’s try and see what happens, we have nothing to lose.’ And indeed several people responded.” Among them was Gary. “I felt an irresistible urge to help her and her family. What struck me was that she is very close in age to my daughter,” he said.

After discussing it with his loved ones, Gary decided to proceed with the donation. “He was absolutely certain he would not back out at any point, although he could have changed his mind even on the day of the operation, since it is a major procedure,” Davey said. “He reassured me that he would not change his mind and explained why he wanted to do it.”