When April Capone Almon, the 35-year-old mayor of East Haven, Connecticut, saw Carlos Sanchez’s Facebook update about needing a kidney, she immediately knew what to do.

Capone recalled reaching out to Sanchez on Facebook: “I sent him a private message and just said, ‘Hey, I’ll try. I’ll get tested…I really felt from the very beginning that I was going to be a match and a donor. I don’t know why, but I just knew it.” (GNN.com)

Sanchez, a 44-year-old father, had posted the status after none of his family and friends were a match.  Even though the mayor had met Sanchez at various events and through casual friends, they weren’t close; Capone didn’t know about Sanchez’s condition until his message.

At first, Sanchez was doubtful of the mayor’s offer, but came to realize her sincerity when when she committed to various tests and, finally, to surgery for the removal of her kidney.  On April 8, the mayor’s left kidney was surgically removed and transplanted to Sanchez. 

Even Capone’s friends wondered if she had fully considered the consequences of her offer, but the mayor had no doubt she did the right thing.  Since she was running for re-election, Capone decided to keep her decision under wraps in order not to sway her constituents.  In the end, she still won a second term.

“I don’t want people to see this as something larger than life,” she said. “There’s nothing special about me. Anybody can try to do this, and if it’s meant to be, you’ll be a match and a donor and you can really help someone.”

Watch a video of Mayor Capone speaking about her kidney donation: