A Tampa Bay area mom made a plea on Facebook to save her son's life – and someone answered the call.

Thirteen-year old Jamie Lemieux needs a kidney, and now he has one from a stranger who saw the post and volunteered to give one up.

  • Jamie Lemieux has lived his life with one working kidney
  • Taira, Shaun Foster saw Facebook post; Shaun was match
  • Taira Foster will also donate kidney to stranger
  • Surgery for Jamie Lemieux, Shawn Foster in September

Jamie was born with kidney disease and has lived most of his life in Seminole with just one working kidney – and that one is about to fail.

"It's a tough road," said his mother, Marcy Lemieux. She hoped she could be a donor until doctors said she couldn't.

"It was hard. My husband and I thought we would be able to do it, and knowing that we couldn’t was very disappointing," Lemieux said.

They asked family and friends but no one was a match.

"We didn't know if we would find anyone," Jamie said. "So I didn't know what would happen."

Desperate, Marcy turned to social media asking for help. She made a Facebook page for her son and posted that he needed a kidney.

That's when she heard from Taira and Shaun Foster from Davenport.

Taira said she saw the post and went to get tested. She was not a match, but then she saw the post again and asked her husband if he would get tested.

"I wondered what his blood type was, and he said he had the same one, and I got excited and asked if he would be a kidney donor," Foster said.

After thinking it over, he agreed to help a total stranger.

"It takes a lot of thinking," Shaun Foster said. "But really it comes down to if I can do it. If I can save someone's life, I should do it."

Lemieux says it was one of the best phone calls she could get. "I started crying because there are no words to thank somebody for something like that," she said.

Taira Foster's test did show she is a match for someone else, and now she will also donate to someone she never met.

"We're both healthy. If we can give this way, it's worth doing," she said.

They hope their story encourages others to get tested to see if they are a potential donor.

Shaun Foster and Jamie Lemieux will undergo surgery in Tampa in August.