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MySpace Friend Gives Woman Kidney

'She Was More Than A Perfect Match,' Diana Phillips Says

POSTED: 8:52 pm MST June 16, 2009
UPDATED: 9:00 am MST June 17, 2009

A friendship formed on MySpace may save a Scottsdale woman’s life.

Diana Phillips will undergo a kidney transplant Wednesday morning.

The kidney she’s receiving is from Ann Francis, a woman Phillips met on MySpace a few years ago.

“Even if I never needed a transplant, even if I never had kidney issues, I would just want to be her friend,” Phillips said.

Phillips first requested to be Ann’s fiance Kent Ward's friend on MySpace.

They are both passionate about drag racing, and Phillips had admired a picture of a car Ward raced.

"It was Mopar sublime green and it was '71 Chevy Nova,” Phillips said.

Ward, who was living in Johnson City, Tenn. at the time, gladly accepted Phillips’ friend request.

"We always thought of the car as a bad luck thing because it kept breaking down in Tennessee,” Francis said.

“We definitely can't get rid of it now,” Ward said.

The Internet friends chatted for more than a year before the subject switched from cars to kidneys.

Phillips is on dialysis; her kidney had failed because of a rare blood disease, and only a transplant could save her life.

“I could live three weeks, three years -- we don't know,” Phillips said, “I don’t like to think about it."

After Phillips said she was type O-negative, Francis offered to find out if she could donate.

“I know she needs it, and I know, obviously, I can get along without it,” Francis said.

The results of the blood tests stunned everyone.

“Not only was she approved. She was more than a perfect match. She matched better than my own brother,” Phillips said. “I thought this was like a one in a million in a opportunity for someone and I was the lucky recipient."

During the process, Ward and Francis decided to move from Tennessee to Scottsdale.

Francis had always wanted to live in Arizona, and the couple also wanted to be closer to Phillips and her husband Angelo.

"She is basically like a sister now,” Francis said.

“Even if I never needed a transplant, even if I never had kidney issues, I would just want to be her friend,” Phillips said.

Francis and Phillips will undergo the transplant surgery at the Mayo clinic.

It will take surgeons about an hour to take the kidney from Francis’ body and give it to Phillips.

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