Soul mate stories: She gave him a kidney, he gave her his heart

Ashley McIntyre had no idea who Danny Robinson was when she heard he was searching for a kidney.

He was the same age as her and had already been through so much. Diagnosed at age 16 with IgA nephropathy, an inflammatory kidney disease, Danny had been in kidney failure since 2012, the same year he lost his father to brain cancer.

The Louisville, Kentucky, electrician was working full time and undergoing four-hour stints of dialysis three nights a week to stay alive while he waited for a transplant.

On January 16, 2014, Ashley overheard her mother telling her grandmother about Danny. The young man and his mother had just been on a Louisville radio talk show sharing their story. None of his family members had been eligible to donate their kidneys, and the anonymous donors who volunteered weren’t compatible.

“I guess you can say we just fell in love,” he said. “I told her I wanted to be with her forever.”

Danny will take anti-rejection medication for the rest of his life, but he said he’s healthy now. Ashley’s kidney won’t last forever, however. Whenever it fails, in an estimated 20 to 30 years, “I will be doing whatever I can to help him get a new one,” she said. “I wish I had 50 kidneys to give him.”

Ashley says it’s been a whirlwind romance.

“I feel like my feet haven’t touched the ground,” she said. “It’s just been an incredible, unexpected, serendipitous journey.”

CNN