A guy in D.C. named Ken Walker recently found out he had kidney disease and needed a transplant.  We don’t know his age, but he graduated from high school in 1969.  So he’s in his late 60s.

Back in November, he was getting desperate.  So he decided to email a bunch of his old classmates from high school.

One of them was a guy in California named Charlie Ball, who remembered Ken even though they weren’t really friends.  They never talked much in high school and hadn’t seen each other in almost 50 years.

But after Ken sent the email, Charlie responded 15 MINUTES later, and said he’d go get tested.  Then he actually followed through, and it turned out he was a match.

Ken’s doctors said they don’t usually accept donors over the age of 60.  But Charlie was in such good shape, they decided to go for it.

The surgery happened earlier this week in D.C., and they’re both doing great.  They should be out of the hospital in the next few days.

Charlie says one reason he did it is because he tries to live by something St. Francis once said . . . “It is in giving that we receive.”

(WJLA / CNN)