{"id":139,"date":"2010-04-23T15:43:47","date_gmt":"2010-04-23T15:43:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/2010\/04\/a-mayor-gives-her-own-kidney-to-facebook-friend.html"},"modified":"2010-04-23T15:43:47","modified_gmt":"2010-04-23T15:43:47","slug":"a-mayor-gives-her-own-kidney-to-facebook-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/04\/a-mayor-gives-her-own-kidney-to-facebook-friend.html","title":{"rendered":"A Mayor Gives Her Own Kidney to Facebook Friend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When April Capone Almon, the 35-year-old mayor of East Haven, Connecticut, saw Carlos Sanchez&#8217;s Facebook update about needing a kidney, she immediately knew what to do.<\/p>\n<p>Capone recalled reaching out to Sanchez on Facebook: &#8220;I sent him a private message and just said, &#8216;Hey, I&#8217;ll try. I&#8217;ll get tested&#8230;I really felt from the very beginning that I was going to be a match and a donor. I don&#8217;t know why, but I just knew it.&#8221; (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.gnn.com\/article\/east-haven-mayor-april-capone-almon\/996230\">GNN.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Sanchez, a 44-year-old father, had posted the status after none of his family and friends were a match.&nbsp; Even though&nbsp;the mayor&nbsp;had met Sanchez at&nbsp;various events and through casual friends, they weren&#8217;t close; Capone didn&#8217;t know about Sanchez&#8217;s condition until his message.<\/p>\n<p>At first, Sanchez was doubtful of the mayor&#8217;s offer, but came to realize her sincerity when when she committed to various tests and, finally, to surgery for the removal of her kidney.&nbsp; On April 8, the mayor&#8217;s left kidney was surgically removed and transplanted to Sanchez.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>Even Capone&#8217;s friends wondered if she had fully considered the consequences of her offer, but the mayor had no doubt she did the right thing.&nbsp; Since she was running for re-election, Capone decided to keep her decision under wraps in order not to sway her constituents.&nbsp; In the end, she still won a second term.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t want people to see this as something larger than life,&#8221; she said. &#8220;There&#8217;s nothing special about me. Anybody can try to do this, and if it&#8217;s meant to be, you&#8217;ll be a match and a donor and you can really help someone.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Watch a video of Mayor Capone speaking about her kidney donation:<\/strong><center><object width=\"427\" height=\"373\" id=\"AOLVP_79531639001\" classid=\"clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/o.aolcdn.com\/videoplayer\/AOL_PlayerLoader.swf\"><\/param><param name=\"bgcolor\" value=\"#000000\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\"\/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><param name=\"flashvars\" value=\"playerid=10032373001&#038;publisherid=1612833736&#038;codever=1&#038;videoid=79531639001&#038;stillurl=http%3A%2F%2Fpdl%2Estream%2Eaol%2Ecom%2Faol%2Fbrightcove%2Fap%2F5184737001%2F5184737001%5F79560678001%5F0422dv%2Dfacebook%2Dmayor%2Dkidney%2D400x300%2Ejpg%3FpubId%3D5184737001\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/o.aolcdn.com\/videoplayer\/AOL_PlayerLoader.swf\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" wmode=\"transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" bgcolor=\"#000000\" width=\"427\" height=\"373\" name=\"AOLVP_79531639001\" flashvars=\"playerid=10032373001&#038;publisherid=1612833736&#038;codever=1&#038;videoid=79531639001&#038;stillurl=http%3A%2F%2Fpdl%2Estream%2Eaol%2Ecom%2Faol%2Fbrightcove%2Fap%2F5184737001%2F5184737001%5F79560678001%5F0422dv%2Dfacebook%2Dmayor%2Dkidney%2D400x300%2Ejpg%3FpubId%3D5184737001\"><\/embed><\/object><\/center><strong>Read more on Mayor April Capone:<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gnn.com\/article\/east-haven-mayor-april-capone-almon\/996230\">Mayor Donates Kidney to Facebook Friend<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When April Capone Almon, the 35-year-old mayor of East Haven, Connecticut, saw Carlos Sanchez&#8217;s Facebook update about needing a kidney, she immediately knew what to do. Capone recalled reaching out to Sanchez on Facebook: &#8220;I sent him a private message and just said, &#8216;Hey, I&#8217;ll try. I&#8217;ll get tested&#8230;I really felt from the very beginning&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,16,2,7,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-courage-and-strength","category-good-deeds","category-good-news","category-heroes-and-she-roes","category-inspiring-people"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Mayor Gives Her Own Kidney to Facebook Friend<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/04\/a-mayor-gives-her-own-kidney-to-facebook-friend.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Mayor Gives Her Own Kidney to Facebook Friend\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When April Capone Almon, the 35-year-old mayor of East Haven, Connecticut, saw Carlos Sanchez&#8217;s Facebook update about needing a kidney, she immediately knew what to do. Capone recalled reaching out to Sanchez on Facebook: &#8220;I sent him a private message and just said, &#8216;Hey, I&#8217;ll try. I&#8217;ll get tested&#8230;I really felt from the very beginning&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/04\/a-mayor-gives-her-own-kidney-to-facebook-friend.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inspiration Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-04-23T15:43:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"shuang\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Mayor Gives Her Own Kidney to Facebook Friend","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/04\/a-mayor-gives-her-own-kidney-to-facebook-friend.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Mayor Gives Her Own Kidney to Facebook Friend","og_description":"When April Capone Almon, the 35-year-old mayor of East Haven, Connecticut, saw Carlos Sanchez&#8217;s Facebook update about needing a kidney, she immediately knew what to do. Capone recalled reaching out to Sanchez on Facebook: &#8220;I sent him a private message and just said, &#8216;Hey, I&#8217;ll try. I&#8217;ll get tested&#8230;I really felt from the very beginning&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/04\/a-mayor-gives-her-own-kidney-to-facebook-friend.html","og_site_name":"Inspiration Report","article_published_time":"2010-04-23T15:43:47+00:00","author":"shuang","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/04\/a-mayor-gives-her-own-kidney-to-facebook-friend.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/04\/a-mayor-gives-her-own-kidney-to-facebook-friend.html","name":"A Mayor Gives Her Own Kidney to Facebook Friend","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-04-23T15:43:47+00:00","dateModified":"2010-04-23T15:43:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/ef1c54850b696e62e323df10adce8ba5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/04\/a-mayor-gives-her-own-kidney-to-facebook-friend.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/04\/a-mayor-gives-her-own-kidney-to-facebook-friend.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/04\/a-mayor-gives-her-own-kidney-to-facebook-friend.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Mayor Gives Her Own Kidney to Facebook Friend"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/","name":"Inspiration Report","description":"Inspiration News, Life Advice and Emotional Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/ef1c54850b696e62e323df10adce8ba5","name":"shuang","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6b4\/6b48911dceeb247289f46ee427de69a5x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6b4\/6b48911dceeb247289f46ee427de69a5x96.jpg","caption":"shuang"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/author\/shuang"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}