ODESSA, TX (KWES) - Stephenie Gardiner and Chane Gildon met in Odessa in 2010 and have been best friends ever since.
Chane was diagnosed with Lupus in 2007, but on November 3, doctors told her she would need a kidney transplant if she wanted to live.
After failed matches with both her mother and her brother, her best friend, Stephenie, knew she had to do something.
"She called me and she was crying and she was devastated and ya know, I didn't even second guess it, I was like I'm going to see if I'm a match for you," Gardiner said.
After many tests, Gardiner and Gildon were a perfect match.
Gildon was told the donor would need to come from a family member, so doctors were shocked to learn that Gardiner was a match because not only are they not related, they also don't share the same ethnicity.
Once they knew it was going to work, Stephenie left her job and her family behind to the Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital in San Antonio.
Stephenie and Chane were scheduled for surgery on December 23, just two days before Christmas.
"A lot of people were like well why would you want to do that two days before Christmas and like I told them, it doesn't matter where you are, it matters who you're with," said Gardiner.
There were no complications with the surgery and both Stephenie and Chane are recovering well.
After their successful transplant, they want to spread the word of being a donor and giving the gift of life to someone in need.
