PHOENIX -- CBS 5 News has read through thousands of e-mails from viewers writing to nominate someone who's made a difference in their life or touched them in a way that deserves recognition.

This week saw two nominations, written independently, that describe the same story. Not the same act of kindness -- the very same story.

From the looks of Ayrika Williams' kitchen, you'd think it was Thanksgiving.

"I show love through food, it's kind of my expression of,' I care for you," she said.

Up since four this morning, today though, she is cooking for someone she's never even met.

"We have talked on the phone, you know, extensively!"

It's a friendship that began almost by accident, or rather, because of an accident.

Williams believes it was her fault. A few weeks ago, merging in traffic, she hit a work truck. The man she hit was OK. It was his wife who wasn't well.

"When he told me his wife had cancer, I just knew," Williams said.

Williams had just gone from being in remission to becoming a survivor of lung cancer. A stranger and cancer survivor helped guide her through treatment, and she knew in an instant it was now her turn to do the same.

In their first phone call, Williams learned this man's wife was not only the same age, they had the same cancer, in the same lung, and needed surgery in the same lobe. The struck an instant connection, so Williams wrote to CBS 5 News, asking to help pay it forward to Teresa Arnold.

"I can't take away the pain, I can't take away the fear, but this is just one small thing I can do to hope to provide her with the financial support they need right now," Williams said.

About 10 hours before Williams hit send on her e-mail nomination, CBS 5 News received another e-mail in our inbox: someone wanted to pay it forward to Williams!

In addition to stepping up with all the emotional support and cooking a kitchen full of food for a stranger, Williams had started a bake sale at work to raise money for her new friend's family.

"We all in the office would like to give back to Ayrika for what she does. She's an incredible person," wrote co-worker Lisa Rodgers.

CBS 5 News was there as she surprised Williams with the $500 award at the office.

And without hesitation, Williams immediately took the cash and added it to an envelope already packed with the money she'd been raising from her bake sale.

"She just rallied so many people to come around something she believed so much in. I wish someone would have done that for my mother when my father died of cancer," Rodgers said, explaining how Willimas took orders and baked cakes and pies and bread for donations from co-workers.

"I thought you know, we'd maybe raise $100," said Williams. "But it turned into something way bigger!"

She invited CBS 5 News to tag along when she met her friend Teresa, for the first time she would finally meet her new friend, Teresa.

As she red the letter she wrote to CBS 5 News, Williams brought Arnold to tears.

In addition to the $500 from the CBS 5 News Pay it Forward, she handed Arnold another $500 from her bake sale donations.

Overwhelmed by the generosity, Arnold said she'll be forever thankful

"We started talking & it was like, 'connection!' She knew what I was going through and was able to help me understand things and guide me through what I was going to be going through," said Arnold.

She said their accident was no accident at all.

"It was a miracle -- it was just meant to be," Arnold said.

Williams agreed.

"I think God made me change lanes for a reason. He wanted to bring me into her life!" she said.