Foley Woman Donates Kidney to Teen 1,300 Miles Away After Seeing Facebook Post

Mark White | The Mark White Show

Foley, Alabama - When Foley resident Bethany Agee saw a Facebook post from a New Hampshire mother searching for a kidney donor for her teenage daughter, she didn’t scroll past. She clicked.

That decision would change two families’ lives forever.

The post was about 17-year-old Jennifer Frost, a high school senior and field hockey player whose kidneys were failing. Dialysis treatments had taken away her ability to attend school events, practices, and senior milestones.

“I read her story and thought, ‘She’s so young,’” Agee recalled. “I have an extra kidney. Maybe I can help.”

Agee, who is a member of the Chickasaw Nation, filled out a donor form that led to medical testing at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Months later, doctors confirmed what she had hoped, she was a match.

“When I got on that plane to Boston, it was real,” she said. “I knew I was going to do it.”

On January 7, 2024, Agee donated one of her kidneys to Frost. Both surgeries were successful. Agee spent one night in the hospital, while Frost stayed for two. By the next morning, Frost’s color had improved, and she was eager to eat.

“Seeing her smiling made any pain I had disappear,” Agee said.

The two families met before surgery and have remained close. The Agees recently visited the Frosts in New England, watching Jennifer play college field hockey, a moment that carried deep significance.

“Last year she was on dialysis. This year she scored her first college goal,” Agee said. “That’s incredible.”

For Agee, the decision to donate was personal. Kidney disease has affected members of her Chickasaw family.

“My grandparents were on dialysis,” she said. “To be able to give life in this way felt like turning something painful into something healing.”

Her faith guided every step.

“The Lord blessed me with good health and the ability to give,” she said. “All glory goes to Him.”

Now, Agee encourages others to consider living donation.

“It’s so doable,” she said. “Most days I forget I only have one kidney. You can change a family’s life.”

The experience also reaffirmed her belief in the power of social media for good.

“My cousin almost stopped posting things like that,” she said. “I told her not to. You never know who’s watching.”

What began as a simple Facebook share became a story of compassion, connection, and courage, linking a Gulf Coast family with another more than 1,000 miles away.

“We may live far apart,” Agee said. “But we’ll always be family.”

To learn more about living organ donation, visit donatelife.net.