Larry Swilling was 77 years old when he decided to go out walking every day in Anderson, South Carolina.
Hanging from his neck, he carried a cardboard sign with a message: ‘I need a kidney for my wife.’ Jimmie Sue, his partner of more than 55 years, had been born with only one kidney, and that organ was no longer enough to keep her alive. No family member proved to be a match, so Larry took to the streets to ask strangers for one, day after day, for more than an entire year.
Her story went viral and reached the Medical University of South Carolina, which eventually located a compatible donor: a veteran with 21 years of military service. The surgery was performed in September 2013 and was a success. Larry’s campaign not only restored Jimmie Sue’s health, it also inspired donations that saved 125 more people. She died in 2017; he, in 2021, at age 87, knowing that his efforts had saved more than one life.