ATLANTA — Kennesaw State student Isabella Dufauchard has found her perfect match with a kidney donor and it's all thanks to the help of billboards.
The 19-year-old, who is related to an 11Alive staff member, has been living with severe kidney failure. She uses an at-home dialysis machine every night for six hours.
"So they were confused as to why I have kidney failure, too. They said, how, you know, some people's bodies just give out sometimes. And my kidneys just decided to one day," Dufauchard previously told 11Alive.
It's an experience that's difficult to navigate, Dufauchard said.
"All of my friends, they go out and kind of just do whatever, but I can't really, you know, go out to do it cause I have -- I'm tied down to this machine half the time," Dufauchard previously said.
She received the life-changing diagnosis two years ago. Just a month after her diagnosis, Dufauchard was told she would need a donor.
That's when her family came up with the creative idea to place several billboards around town asking for a donor. The billboards went up at the beginning of February and were placed around the Atlanta area, Dufauchard explained.
In an update on Monday, Dufauchard's family said a donor saw one of the billboards near Cumberland Mall the first weekend the billboards went up. The donor ended up being Dufauchard's perfect kidney match.
Now, Dufauchard is going through the donation process. Her family said a transplant has been scheduled for May.
Metro Atlanta college student puts up billboard to find kidney donor
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