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People have already demonstrated that Tinder is good for a whole lot more than getting an STD or a confidence boost from a rando creep. Just ask 27-year-old Susan who used the dating app to find some poor soul to shovel her car out from the snow this winter. But one Florida woman took things to a whole new level with a different kind of “match.”
Rich O’Dea, 43, went out with a random Tinder match expecting a typical blind date (or probably just hoping not to get murdered). While at an Imagine Dragons concert with Jennifer Thomas, 35, they started talking about his friend’s wife, Erika Bragan, who really needed a new kidney and had an O-negative blood type, leaving her on a waiting list for years.
“I felt for Erika,” Jennifer, who is the mother of a 9-year-old son, told PEOPLE. “I’m a mom and she’s a mom and I just couldn’t imagine being in her shoes and her children losing their mother. I knew I had to find a way to help her.”
Although the sparks didn’t fly between Rich and Jennifer, the woman wanted to find out if she was a possible (non-romantic) match for Erika.
After a few months and some intricate tests, doctors determined that Jennifer was indeed a transplant match for Erika.
“We are so thankful, the planets aligned and Tinder gave her an angel,” Erika said. “It’s a story you just can’t make up.”
Erika is set to receive the new kidney November 18, and the women have since become good friends.
See? Tinder can work…for something.
