Plainfield resident Christine Todd wore t-shirts with her message printed across the front at Chicago White Sox games, hoping a stranger in the stands might consider becoming her kidney donor. The gamble worked. A biology teacher from Virginia named Chris Beck saw her story, got tested, turned out to be a perfect match, and donated one of his kidneys to save her life.
Todd has polycystic kidney disease, a condition that causes fluid-filled sacs to take over healthy kidney tissue and can eventually lead to kidney failure, according to NBC Chicago. Facing that reality, she sought a living kidney donor the same way generations of Sox fans have sought foul balls: right at the ballpark, using t-shirts and a banner to get her message in front of thousands of strangers. Illinois currently has nearly 4,000 people waiting for a lifesaving kidney transplant, per the outlet, and Todd wasn't willing to simply wait her turn on a list.
Todd's approach wasn't without precedent at Guaranteed Rate Field. Fellow White Sox fan Lisa Polk found a living kidney donor who sat in front of her at a White Sox game, and Polk and the donor had known each other for 23 years, according to CBS News Chicago. Polk and her donor underwent transplant surgery in September 2022, the outlet reported. White Sox Hall of Famer Harold Baines, who received a kidney transplant, later met with Todd and Polk at the ballpark to support living donor awareness, the same report noted.
A Match Found Through a QR Code and a Story That Aired
After NBC Chicago's initial coverage of Todd's search aired, potential donors began coming forward. Among them was Chris Beck, a biology teacher living in Virginia, who requested to become a donor for Todd and turned out to be a perfect match.
Beck did not need to travel to Chicago to give Todd his kidney. He went to a donor center near his home, and the donation surgery took place in Richmond, Virginia, before his kidney was flown to Chicago for the transplant. That logistics-defying arrangement is possible thanks to organizations like the National Kidney Registry, which operates paired exchange networks allowing non-directed or incompatible living donors to donate locally while shipping the organ to a matched recipient at another transplant center nationwide, according to background compiled by PMC.
A Kidney Can Be Shipped for Transplant
Living-donor kidneys can be shipped across state lines. A study in the American Journal of Transplantation discussed shipping living-donor kidneys. In Todd's case, the kidney was shipped to Chicago for transplantation.
Reunited in the Stands Where It All Began
Todd and Beck attended a White Sox game together this past Saturday, the same kind of setting where her search first took shape. Todd said thank you didn't feel like enough, describing Beck's decision to donate as feeling like a miracle. Beck, for his part, said he would help another person again if he could.
Nationally, living organ donations rose 3% in 2025 to 7,237 donors, even as total kidney transplants slipped slightly to 27,573, including 6,521 living-donor procedures, per data released in January by the United Network for Organ Sharing.
Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago hosts one of the nation's top 10 living-donor transplant programs and has completed more than 3,000 living donor kidney transplants, according to Northwestern Medicine. Anyone interested in becoming an organ donor can find more information through the Illinois Secretary of State.
