Photo: WNYT
During one of our storms last week a young boy from Colonie saw a man in a wheelchair outside, in a supermarket parking lot, struggling in the snow in the dark. So, 11-year-old Josh Cuzdey jumped out of the car and ran over to help the man navigate the snow by pushing his wheelchair. Josh and his mom ended up loading the man, his wheelchair and his groceries into their car and gave him a ride home.
62-year old Keith Oakes, lost his right leg over a year ago. He says he tries to be independent, but the weather was just too bad not to accept the help.
Oakes was touched by Josh's kindness and hopes people hearing their story will encourage others to help out.
By the way, this isn't Josh's first experience helping. He collects food for the hungry and donates some of his Christmas gifts to other kids who might not have a Merry Christmas.
There are few college football rivalries as intense as Penn State - Ohio State, which makes this story even better. A retired teacher in Harrisburg was told he needed a new kidney because he had stage 4 kidney failure. He was placed on a transplant list, but there were many people ahead of him so his wife put out a plea on Facebook urging the people they knew to get tested to see if there was a match. The post went viral and it was seen by a 34-year-old woman who was so moved by it, she got tested. Turns out, she was a match and they had never even met.
And now for the kicker... he is a season ticket holder to Penn State Football and she is an Ohio State Buckeye. Her reveal to him about being his kidney donor was even cooler. She rang his doorbell in the entire Penn State Nittany Lion Costume while holding a sign revealing she was donating her kidney.
They recently underwent their surgery and are so far doing great.