Woman’s life saved by Facebook friend who donates kidney

A Tennessee woman's life has been saved after receiving a kidney from a Facebook friend who she hasn't seen in years.

"I've been called angel and hero, and I don't really see myself as that," kidney donor Latrice Sharpe tells local news station WSMV. "I saw where I could actually make a difference."

Sharpe, a grade school classmate of Melissa Moore, responded to Moore's Facebook status in search of a kidney donor.

"She could've spent yesterday having Thanksgiving with her family, but she sat in a room trying to get over nausea, headache and terrible pains to help me," Moore tells WSMV.

Moore was told by her doctor five years ago that she had kidney failure. At the time, he advised she might not live long enough to find kidney donor, which he predicted could take four and a half years.

At the hospital over the American Thanksgiving weekend the pair had a touching encounter, engaging in a warm embrace.

"You are a great person," Moore tells Sharpe. "Your family's lucky to have you, and I'm so lucky to have you. You mean the world to me."

Sharpe told Moore she believes it was God's will that she donated her kidney.

The story of these two women is just one example of how social networks like Facebook can help save lives.

A B.C. man received a life-saving kidney transplant this November after a Facebook campaign sought a donor.

In 2010, a little girl whose mother posted a picture of her on Facebook was accurately diagnosed with eye cancer by her mother's Facebook friend, who happened to be a nurse. The friend called the mother to alert her. It turns out the girl had two tumours that could have been fatal.

Would you turn to social network sites to find an organ donor if necessary?