In sports, it’s not uncommon to see people forget about reality, believing that a few hours of a sporting event or the team colors of a different team that another person wears is reason to “hate” them.
And in Chicago, where there are two MLB teams—the White Sox and Cubs—the rivalry between the North Side and South Side of the city is often pretty heated, as Cubs fans don’t like Sox fans and vice versa.
But a story was reported today in Red Eye Chicago that proves not all is lost between fans of the two teams—and it’s a total bro move.
According to the story, a five-year-old White Sox fan named Drew Duszynski was in need of a kidney transplant after being diagnosed with a kidney disease just after birth, which, not only required numerous treatments, but also prevented him from playing sports.
After word of Drew’s story made it to 35-year-old Cubs fan Chris White, White wanted to be the man to step to the plate and donate his kidney to the youngster, following in the footsteps of his wife who had donated an organ to her dad once before.
Here’s what some of the Red Eye story had to say:
“Drew has rolled with it as much as a 5-year-old can,” said Drew’s mother, Pam Schulz, who is also a pediatrician. “He loves sports and has wanted to play all of them since he was little.”
But often Drew’s energy level and endurance weren’t robust enough for basic play.
“He’d get frustrated playing kickball, not being fast enough to run,” Schulz said. “Often, his friends would assign a base runner for him.”
Meanwhile, daily regimens included taking up to six medications daily to battle symptoms most children and their parents don’t think about, things such as high potassium and high phosphorous—both of which are deadly to kidney patients—and rising blood pressure.
For those who know anything about me, this KILLS me, as I’ve often talked about how no kid should have to live through something like this that prevents them from doing things that, you know, little kids should be doing—like playing sports and running around with friends.
A Cubs fan donated a life-saving kidney to this young Sox fanhttps://t.co/6LwRukgHvL pic.twitter.com/PPtmwjJK1L
— Chicago Things to Do (@redeyechicago) January 19, 2016
As Chris White continued to reach out to the family on Facebook, it became clear that Drew’s donor was just a friend request away, as Drew’s mom said, “We didn’t know Chris White, but I noticed he kept trying to friend us on Facebook.”
Here’s what White told Red Eye as to why he wanted to be the man for the job:
So when hearing about the opportunity to help someone else, in this case a child who was approximately the same age as his son, Jack, “it was for me a no-brainer,” White said.
“I first met Drew at a Bulls game two weeks before Dec. 14, our op [surgery] date,” White said. He observed Drew as “just a 5-year-old. Active and a little rambunctious, he was talking up the players and keeping tabs of the Bulls’ score, every second.”
Both little Drew and White are doing great following surgery last month, as both families stayed close through the holidays and into the new year. And, according to White, there’s only one thing left to do to help Drew—change his baseball allegiances.
“I hope that my donation might, at some point, set him straight and influence Drew’s choice in baseball teams,” White said, joking.
The dude can joke all he wants, because he made a HUGE impact on a stranger that will allow the kid to do things that he couldn’t ever imagine doing prior to the transplant.
[H/T SB Nation, Red Eye Chicago]