PHOENIX (KTVK/KPHO/Gray News) – A couple married for 25 years are celebrating a love story that truly defies the odds after a wife learned she was the perfect match to donate a kidney to her husband.
Some stories sound like they are written for the movies, but Jenifer and Ryan DeMarre call it true love.
“She met my parents before I met her, and their first interaction… when my mom met Jenifer, my mom said, ‘Oh, I hear you’re my future daughter-in-law,” Ryan said.
Little did they know, that would soon become a reality.
For 25 years, the DeMarres created a perfect life for each other and their four kids. But behind those moments was an invisible challenge – Ryan was diagnosed with kidney disease in 2009.
“I couldn’t stand. I couldn’t walk. It was like whatever I was doing just didn’t feel good,” Ryan said.
“I was pregnant. Little, little babies, and we’re going, ‘What are we going to do?’ It was scary,” Jenifer said.
For years, the disease progressed slowly until March of this year when doctors said Ryan was in urgent need of a new kidney.
“His kidney function had rapidly declined, and he was to the point where he was just weeks away from needing dialysis. He was not feeling great,” said Dr. Michelle Nguyen, a transplant surgeon at Mayo Clinic.
That’s when Jenifer stepped up, offering to donate her kidney, and found out she was the perfect match.
“The doctor said, ‘Yeah, your blood just backs down to hers, and it’s going to be the perfect match,’ and he [Ryan] goes, ‘Yeah, it’s been trained to do that for 25 years,’” Jenifer said.
On Nov. 5, the couple arrived at the Mayo Clinic to complete the transplant.
“She’s given me more years with my dad. My siblings and I, we didn’t know if we would have that, but because of her sacrifice, we’re able to enjoy him for longer. It’s really beautiful,” said Emily DeMarre, the couple’s daughter.
For this happy couple, it’s the perfect match: soulmates – and now medically a match – in every way.
“It defies odds, and the fact that we were a match made it feel like God had this in his design,” Ryan said.
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