Father of five, Robert Leibowitz, was in need of a life saving organ transplant and he went to Walt Disney World in Orlando hoping for a little magic. He turned himself into a walking billboard wearing a T-Shirt advertising his need for a kidney around the park.
Leibowitz walked around the park, for a week, wearing a T-shirt that read: “In Need of Kidney. O Positive.” The message had his cell phone number written below it and after park-goers snapped photos and videos of the shirt and shared them on social media the story quickly went viral. One post saw 90,000 shares with in the first week.
That was about 5 months ago, but he has finally found the Disney magic he was hoping for and now he has found a donor. Leibowitz, 60, had suffered from chronic kidney disease for 15 years.
Richie Sully from Fort Wayne, Indiana saw the photo and decided to take action, according to the report from WPIX.
Sully left a voicemail after calling the number saying simply, “Hi, my name is Richie. I saw your post. I have an extra kidney. I’m O-positive. You’re more than welcome to have it.”
Also a single dad, Sully who has two girls, took off from work and went to New York where he stayed in a hotel for two weeks on his own dime. He was able to meet Liebowitz and he spent time with him everyday.
“We walked around Manhattan for, like, six hours and we had sushi and he took me to Times Square and we talked about music and about being dads and things like that and really hit it off,” he said.
Thursday, Sully underwent surgery beside his new friend at New York Presbyterian Hospital according to the report.
“It’s not a big deal,” Sully said of the procedure, but for Rob Liebowitz and his family, it’s a very big deal.
“I keep saying, ‘Thank you,’” Liebowitz said. “But you can’t put into words what he did for me, so I’ll have to figure out how to do the best I can for the rest of my life.”