DC Man Gets Needed Kidney From 1969 H.S. Classmate

WASHINGTON, DC — Half a century can be a long time to forget a person you barely talked to in high school, but that didn't stop Charlie Ball from flying across the country to help a classmate in need.

Ball and Kenneth Walker graduated from Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, D.C. in 1969. They weren't quite friends back then, but now they're literally inseparable.

Walker was working as a South Africa bureau chief for NPR when he became ill. After a misdiagnosis and incorrect treatment, CNN reported, Walker flew home to the U.S. in late 2016 in need of a kidney. He lives in D.C.

Walker put his name of every wait list he could. On the recommendation of a friend, he got a list of email addresses of his 1969 classmates from the school and sent out the plea in November.

"It is nearly impossible for me to come to terms with what I must ask of you, and that is your help in finding a kidney donor so that I can have a chance to improve my quality of life -- and perhaps even to extend it beyond the expected span of a dialysis patient," Walker wrote, CNN reported.

"Consider being an organ donor after death and also, help me by sharing my story with everyone you know. At the very least, I want to bring awareness to kidney disease and living donation," he wrote. "I am hopeful my efforts will help me receive a kidney sooner and encourage others to consider helping the many people on the wait list."

Ball responded less than 15 minutes later, according to CNN. This week, the two men underwent the successful transplant surgery at George Washington University Hospital and are recovering.

"Immediately, I get this response from Charlie and you're suspicious. What's wrong with this guy?" Walker told WJLA, a CNN affiliate. With the current racial tension of the U.S. political climate, Walker saw Ball's gesture of a white man sacrificing a piece of his body for a black man as a breath of fresh air.

Ball's family was concerned before the surgery, especially because he is over 60, the age at which doctors generally disqualify people from donating. But he's in great shape, so doctors were okay with his age.

"I responded and said, 'well I'll just take the tests and if it goes well I'll end up in my current condition," Ball said according to CNN. "I passed all the tests."

WJLA reported Ball as saying "I'm giving him a piece of my body... It's simple enough, God gave me two, I don't have to wonder why."

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