Stacy Hobson had been dealing with chronic kidney disease and high blood pressure. She was on the transplant list for 18 months. Doctors informed her that waiting for a kidney from a deceased donor could take five to seven years, so they suggested she begin dialysis. However, she declined because she wanted to continue traveling. She expressed that if she couldn’t do what she loved, it didn’t feel like living. In May 2025, while in Greece, she found a sense of peace about her situation.
Around the same time in Memphis, Jenny Joyner began the process to donate a kidney to someone she had never met. Joyner, who has three children and works as an admissions counselor at Ole Miss, had not planned to donate a kidney. She was inspired after seeing a Facebook post about living kidney donation that she couldn’t forget. That evening, her husband placed a drink in a cup featuring a transplant organization’s logo, which she didn’t recognize. She mentioned that finding the cup felt like another sign from God.
Joyner underwent compatibility tests at the Methodist Transplant Institute for several weeks. Shortly after Hobson returned from Greece, she received a phone call that excited her. The surgery took place in August 2025. Due to hospital privacy policies, the two women did not know each other’s names, so Hobson wrote a letter to her kidney donor and sent it through the hospital. In the letter, she expressed her deep gratitude as words felt insufficient to convey her thanks. Joyner read the letter while recovering at home, unaware of who had written it.
The two women met in early November after fully recovering. Joyner stated she would do it again. Currently, over 100,000 people are on the national transplant waiting list, with approximately 85 percent needing a kidney. What are your thoughts on living kidney donation?
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Source: Upworthy, by Adam Albright-Hanna