Here’s your daily dose of sweetness:
Stacey Elsenpeter, of Andover, got the Ellen DeGeneres treatment in a segment that aired today when the show surprised Elsenpeter, a single mom who participated in a parent-kidney exchange to find a match for her son, Zach, who was born with kidney failure.
Stacey wasn’t a match to donate a kidney to her son, so she donated a kidney to a stranger, instead. Three years later, a stranger donated a kidney to Zach.
Elsepeter held a blood drive in 2015 to “give back” to the community, she said, because blood products kept her son alive until a kidney could be found.
Zach’s father donated his kidney in 2004 — when Zach was 11 months old — but the kidney failed when he was 5.