A WOMAN who promised to donate one of her kidneys to a man she
barely knew has married him three years after his successful
transplant surgery.
Chelsea Clair and Kyle Froelich met at a 2009 car show in Indiana
when he was 19 and she was 22. It was his senior year at Brownsburg
High School, the last year the doctors thought he would live.
After meeting at the car show Mr Froelich and his best friend
tagged along with Ms Clair to the carwash. She let him drive the
Camaro and he ended up scuffing one of the rims.
Ms Clair had never met Mr Froelich before but she had heard about
his plight though a family friend and had already offered to raise
awareness for his cause.
Ms Clair told him right then that she would give him one of her
kidneys.
She underwent the necessary tests and ended up being a near perfect
match.
She says her family were worried about her decision.
"Chelsea, you can’t just go to Wal-Mart and buy a kidney," her
family told her.
She says perhaps her decision to donate had something to do with
her father who had died before he was able to find bone marrow
transplant.
Her decision initially drove a wedge between her and her
mother.
"I felt like I had nobody," she said.
After Ms Clair's kidney was transplanted into Mr Froelich it
started working right away.
The couple was married October 12 at the Danville Conservation
Club, the venue that hosted the car show where they met.
Ms Clair has a six-year-old daughter, Aby, from her previous
marriage and she and Mr Froelich have an 11-month-old son,
Wyatt.
