UPDATE:

Exclusive: Local Viewer Offers Kidney to Cathedral City Man in Need of Transplant

We first met Marco Curiel last week after Desert Wraps, a local business gave him a free advertisement for his car to help him find a kidney donor. We asked him to stop by to show us the finished wrap, little did he know we really asked him to come by our studios to meet a special NBC Palm Springs viewer, Wendy Kreta.

Wendy comes out of nowhere in the middle of our interview, and interrupts, “Hi Marco, how are you?”

“Good,” says Marco with a confused look on his face.

“Good. I’m Wendy Kreta and I saw your story and I don’t know if I‘m a match or not but … if I’m a match it’s yours … I have two of them, I only need one to live,” she said in a matter of fact voice.

Marco was still not over the initial shock, that a perfect stranger was willing to put her life on the line to save his.

“That’s awesome thank you so much,” he replied.

“You’re welcome, you’re welcome,” responded Wendy.

“That’s awesome, did you know about this?” Marco asked me as I’m shooting video from behind the camera.

“We planned this whole thing,” I say as I burst into laughter.

“I’m still in shock,” says Marco.

According to the National Kidney Foundation, an average of 13 people in the U.S. die everyday waiting for a kidney.

At just 33-years-old, Marco knows the odds of his survival without a transplant.

“The average wait time for a kidney in California is seven to eleven years and like, I said the average expectancy for a person on dialysis is about 10 to 11 years so it gets kind of close there,” he says with a look of sadness.

What started out as a story about a gift of kindness from a local business, grew into the gift of life.

“Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart,” Marco tells Wendy.

“You need this, and I can do this and, I want to do this for you,” says Wendy holding back tears.

Marco says Wendy is an angel sent from God to save his life.

Part 1 is available here.

UPDATE: Local Viewer Offers Kidney to Cathedral City Man in Need of Transplant