When a fellow teacher sounded the alarm that her husband Brad needed a life-saving kidney transplant, Illinois art teacher Lillian Johnston got tested to see if she was a match……and gave him one of hers!

Johnston watched her mom donate blood every month when she was growing up. Then she needed a life-saving blood transfusion herself when she had her third child. So although she’d never met Brad before, she “just felt really strongly about helping.”

Brad’s ground-breaking surgery took less than an hour while he was awake. Johnston wants people to know that “[organ donation] is very common and it’s very low risk,” so they’ll consider taking the same “chance to really make a difference in someone else’s life.”

Click to meet this incredible teacher hero!

(Photo credit Lillian Johnston)