INDIANAPOLIS — A Hoosier found love and a new kidney through a dating app.
Reid Alexander was diagnosed with a renal failure disease called Alport syndrome as a teenager.
“I had to grow up and take my health serious,” Alexander said.
But he didn’t let the diagnosis hold him back and decided to follow his dream and move across the country to Denver in August of 2020, where he would meet the love of his life.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to get on Tinder,’ and we matched.”
Alexander and Rafael Diaz went on their first date a few days later.
“We hit off, and we’ve been together every day since, literally, every day since we met,” Alexander said.
The two got engaged in April of 2021. As they started wedding planning, Alexander’s health began to decline, and he was placed on the transplant list.
That’s when Diaz checked if he could donate a kidney.
“He was very positive he was going to [be] a match,” Alexander said. “In the back of my head I was like, ‘It’s not going to work.'”
The two were a perfect match.
However, doctors in Denver said the surgery was too risky because of the size of Diaz’s kidney. Alexander called IU Health, which agreed to perform the surgery.
Almost one year to the day since the two went on their first date, one of Diaz’s kidneys became Alexander’s.
“Everything looks good, kidney’s working great,” Alexander said. “He’s given me the opportunity to live a better life, a longer life, and now that I have a healthy kidney, we’re able to live our life to the fullest potential.”
“It’s not only for love,” Diaz said, “we’re going to start to live this chapter in the life. If you can help someone else and give someone else life, do it.”
There are 7.6 billion people in the world and 106,000 people on the national transplant list, many looking for their perfect match.
And for these two, it was each other.
“We knew we were meant to be, but it just confirmed we were meant to be,” Alexander said. “Be a donor, it changes your life.”
Alexander and Diaz have set up a GoFundMe to help with medical expenses and their stay while they are in Indiana. To learn more, click here.
