Organ donation is one of the best things that you can do for another person. Most of the time, organs are harvested from those who’ve agreed to donate them after they’ve passed on, or family members who’ve volunteered and been lucky enough to be a biological match to save a sick loved one. Even when an organ is found, however, the procedure is not without its dangers…
Until I heard this story, I’d never considered being a live donor for a stranger. Major surgery is dangerous – people have lost their lives whilst donating – and that’s why it’s usually only family members who’re willing to do it. Christopher Dempsey, a veteran from Illinois, decided to donate after hearing about a stranger’s life that hung in the balance. But what he never expected was for her to do this…
Some people say that there’s no such thing as a coincidence. If you’re one of them, maybe you’ll have changed your mind by the time you’ve finished reading this story. One afternoon, whilst Christopher was on his lunch break, he overheard a colleague speaking about his cousin, a young woman, who was going die if she didn’t receive a liver transplant soon. Until then, he’d never considered organ donation…
Unfortunately, you have to be a lot more than just willing to donate an organ. You have to be healthy and a biological match – otherwise the liver will be rejected by the recipient’s body. Christopher figured it was worth a shot…
Christoper went for tests at the local university to see if he’d be able to donate his liver to this stranger. She was just twenty-five years old and should have been in the prime of her life. Whilst everyone else her age was looking to the future, she was planning her funeral. She knew Christopher was being tested but didn’t get her hopes up after many people close to her had failed to be a match…
Christopher was a marine and no stranger to helping people in need. In fact, he was well-known for it, so it made sense that he was willing to go above and beyond for a stranger. It just goes to show that there are some truly amazing people out there!
Christopher was an everyday hero. It didn’t matter whether a friend or a stranger needed his help, if there was something he could do to make someone else’s life easier, he’d do it. Whilst working at his job, Christopher encountered a very sad situation. He’d met a woman of 90 whose house was falling apart. Instead of putting what he’d seen to the back of his mind, Christopher decided repair her home for her!
“When I heard about her situation, I just put myself in [her shoes], thinking if this was one of my family members or me, I would want somebody to help me out,” Dempsey said in an interview with Today. But Christopher’s mom wasn’t so sure about it…
“My mom was kind of nervous at first for me,” Christopher added in his Todayinterview. “Some people didn’t understand why I would do this for a stranger, but as time went on, people changed their tune and thought it was a cool thing I was doing.” It’s easy to see why his mom was concerned. In rare instances, people who agree to donate their organs can die themselves. What’s more is that if they fall ill in a similar way, they’re putting their own health at risk…
Until this point, the only contact the pair had was via text message. The young woman’s nam was Heather, and Christopher had sent her a text to say that he was going to try and see if he was a suitable match. Some time later, he finally got his test results back…
It was match! Christopher must have been overwhelmed when he found out, but no one could have been happier than Heather. Christopher phoned Heather to tell her the news. “I got off the phone and ran down the hallway, and my mother and I were both crying our eyes out in disbelief,” Heather revealed in a Today interview. “I had never even met this man before.” However, Heather was far from being out of the woods. Her body was incredibly weak, and no one knew if she’d survive such an invasive operation…
Despite her young age, Heather received a heartbreaking diagnosis in early 2014 when she discovered that she had liver cancer. It was a life-changing. She was a young woman who, until then, had been looking to the future…
But it was looking like Heather was unlikely to have a future. She didn’t just have cancer, she had stage four liver cancer. That meant that the disease was particularly advanced. So much so that she was given some heartbreaking news shortly before Christopher heard her story…
Heather had initially been on a general waiting list for a liver transplant, but her condition deteriorated to the point where she had to get a live donor. There was no way that she was going to life long enough to have a shot at getting one from someone who’d passed away. But live donors are a lot more difficult to find, and time was running out for this beautiful young woman…
Before Heather was matched with Christopher, she was told that she had less than two months to live. As a result, she’d begun preparing for her death, even though she’d barely had a chance to live. There must have been so many things that Heather would have had to accept she’d never do – like getting married and having kids. She said she could feel her body starting to shut down…
Heather’s chances of survival were now vastly improved, but she’d never even met the man who’d selflessly volunteered to save her life. Shortly after the match was made, the two met for lunch before undergoing the transplant operation…
“About a week after I told her I was her donor, we met for lunch,” Christopher said in an interview. “Just to meet each other and go over what we were about to go through.” He must have been glad to finally meet the woman he’d decided to selflessly help…
Hospital bills are notoriously expensive, especially when someone is suffering from a serious illness like cancer. Medication to treat cancer can cost as much as $65,000 a month! Christoper wanted to do more for this young woman than just donate his liver…
Christopher was a motorbike enthusiast and was a member of a club. Once the match was made, everyone knew what he was doing, and he decided to hold a fundraiser to help Heather’s family pay for her hospital expenses which were growing greater by the day. These expenses would only be greater after Heather had the operation to potentially save her life. If it even worked…
Liver transplants take around eight hours to complete. Once they are over, there’s no telling if the person whose received the liver will survive. If their body rejects the new liver, they will be back in the same situation as they were before, but weaker and still in need of a new liver…
Christopher and Heather must have been terrified, but they both knew that the operation was the only way that Heather would get a second chance at life. Would she die on the operating table? Or, worse, would she and Christopher pass away?
Christopher and Heather, however, were lucky and the operation was a complete success! But no one knew if Heather’s body would accept the new liver so this story’s far from over. But for the time being Heather was now healthy and able to live the life she should have been living all along…
Before the operation, Christopher, like a true gentleman, made it clear to that he was happy to live in the knowledge he’d saved her life. But no one could have predicted what happened next as the two recovered from the operation…
“[Christopher] had told me at the beginning of everything, ‘You owe me absolutely nothing for this. We can go our separate ways if that’s what you want,’” Heather said in her interview with Today. But the two had been through a lot together, and she wanted to stay in touch…
“It was kind of like, we do have this special bond, but is this just because I’m sick that I’m feeling this way?” Heather said in an interview. But it soon became clear that she wasn’t feeling that way just because of her illness…
“You had to kind of separate that, but after the surgery, I realized it went beyond that,” Heather said. Once they had both recovered enough, they started to spend more time together. Heather must have been glad to not only have her life back, but someone new in it…
Recovering from a major operation is a slow process. Heather not only had to rebuild her strength after liver cancer ravaged her body, but heal from the transplant. Whilst Christopher’s recovery didn’t take as long, he was still in pain…
“We grew so much recovering together and supporting each other,” Heather said. “We both knew how each other felt. We didn’t feel good at all. Our families met, and they hit it off so we continued to grow and hand out more.” Can you guess what happens next?!
After spending so much time together, the two eventually fell in love. Shortly after the liver transplant, they made their relationship Facebook official. Their family and friends were overjoyed that the operation had led to a new relationship…
Heather and Christopher’s story gives a whole new meaning to the term blind date. When someone agrees to donate their liver to a stranger, the last thing they expect to do is find love in the process, but that’s exactly what happened to Christopher. What’s more is that enough time had passed for Heather to know that her body wasn’t going to reject her new liver. She had officially beaten her illness!
Heather’s life had been on hold for a year as she battled cancer, but her and her new beau made sure that she was able to live every day to the fullest. They’re pictured here riding horses in the ocean and look like they’re having a great time!
Nothing makes you appreciate life more than realizing just how quickly it can be taken from you. Heather was able to live through days that she’d never expected to see. That Christmas, something truly amazing happened…
It didn’t take long for the couple to realize that they’d made the connection of a lifetime. This really was a story straight of a fairy tale. The prince had saved the princess’s life, and now they’d fallen in love. There was just one thing left to do…
All they had to do was get married! Christopher decided to put a ring on it in December 2015. What an end to a truly amazing year for them! Heather never thought she’d live more than a few months at the start of the year, but she hadn’t just survived, she’d found love in the process…
It really was a fairy tale ending. Heather wanted to thank Christopher for everything he’d done for her at their wedding and wrote the most gorgeous vows. They began with her saying, “You are the most incredible man I have ever known…”
I doubt there was a dry eye left in the church when Heather continued, “You believe in me, and you make me feel amazing every single day. Because of you, I laugh, smile and I dare to dream again.” Who’d have thought one overheard conversation could lead to something so beautiful?!
“I had an angel watching over me,” Heather revealed in her Today interview. Speaking of angels and princesses, that’s exactly what Heather looked like on her wedding day! A day which would have never happened if it hadn’t been for a few amazing coincidences…
“I think about all the what-ifs, like the fact that he normally didn’t go into that break room for lunch, or that my cousin is a seasonal worker who happened to be in there that day, or whether someone else would have come forward, and would it have been in time?”
“I think first of all that it shows everyone, when all you hear is negativity, that there really are sincerely true, kind people out there,” Heather said. Christopher’s selfless act of kindness hadn’t just changed Heather’s life, it had changed his own too…
So, for anyone out there who doesn’t believe in coincidences, has your opinion changed? We should all be organ donors after we die, and if you hear of someone in need of a live donor, you should volunteer to be tested. You never know what will happen next…
