Ashley McIntyre and Danny Robinson's love story began with an incredible act of kindness.
Danny was suffering from a kidney inflammatory disease called IgA nephropathy, which put him into full kidney failure at age 23. For two years, he underwent 12 hours of dialysis every week to manage his disease while still working full-time as an electrician. He desperately needed a kidney transplant, but none of his family members were a match. Waiting for a kidney from the national registry could take as long as three years that he didn't have. To draw awareness to his situation, he went on a local radio show, which changed his life forever.
Ashley's mother happened to be listening, and Ashley later overheard her mother and grandmother talking about Danny's story; he'd also lost his father to brain cancer in 2012, and his house burned down on Christmas Day in 2011. Ashley's mother lamented that she wished she could give him a kidney, but she had too many health problems herself.
"It was just like one thing after another for them," Ashley told Good Morning America. "I was like, 'Well, I'm type-O and I don't have any health problems.'"
She called the next day to volunteer her kidney, and the testing process began shortly after. But she refused to meet Danny face-to-face until she was 100% sure that the kidney transplant would go through — she didn't want to get his hopes up. She coordinated the details primarily with his mom. Once everything was in place, the two finally met in person in March 2014 with their families at The Cheesecake Factory.
"I was extremely nervous — over-the-top nervous," Ashley told Huffington Post. "But as soon as we sat down and started talking, it was like immediately I just felt like I had known him forever. Everything his mom had told me up until that point was true — about him being a truly good human being, just a good person all the way around. My dad was very taken aback about how put together he was. He said he could tell he was a genuine person."
On April 17, 2014, Ashley's kidney was transferred to Danny with no complications. But their bond didn't end there; they stayed in close contact, and during a Memorial Day Weekend barbecue, they both realized that they were more than just a perfect match for a kidney — they were a perfect match for each other. They began dating soon after, and Danny proposed on Christmas Day in 2014. The couple is now expecting their first child together.
"It still doesn't register to me," Ashley told Huffington Post. "Before all of this [attention], we don't really think about our situation. We just live our daily lives. So to relive it all is kind of surreal, but it's awesome."
—Kristen Klein
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