Roswell teacher receives new kidney thanks to a stranger from across the country

ATLANTA - A Roswell teacher is getting a second chance at life thanks to the kindness of a stranger in Arizona. 

Wesley Wozgen will undergo a kidney transplant on Friday. 

Wozgen is a teacher and a coach at Centennial High School. 

Health problems caused him to start dialysis in early 2019 but he knew dialysis would be a difficult long term solution. 

"It probably was going to be really hard to teach because there are some side effects dialysis," Wozgen said. "Worst case scenario is you die waiting for a kidney." 

Wozgen has been an educator for 25 years. 

One of his colleagues took action to help find him a donor after hearing about his situation. She helped him create a Facebook page and even suggested he turn his car into a billboard. 

Then, late last year Wozgen received a message on Facebook. 

"When I first read it, it wasn't sure if it was true," he said. 

The message was from Tyler Preston, a stranger across the country in Arizona. 

In the message, Preston told Wozgen he was in the process of figuring out if he was a match to donate his kidney. 

"When I reached out to Wesley, I had already been doing all the testing and everything on my end for him for the past two or three months," Preston said. 

Even from thousands of miles away, Preston could see just how much Wozgen meant to those around him. 

"I think what really got me was the amount of support he had gotten from students and other teachers. I could tell a lot of people really cared about him," Preston said. 

Preston had made the decision several years ago to donate a kidney after learning about the reality of those who have to wait on a transplant list for a donor.  He had donated blood for years but decided he wanted to do something else to help others. 

The two strangers are now just days away from life-changing surgery. The surgery was initially scheduled for April but had to be pushed back due to the Coronavirus pandemic. 

The two found out on Wednesday they were cleared for surgery on Friday. 

Wozgen said he's still blown away that people like Preston exist. 

"I don't know how you repay somebody that's giving you a second chance at life," Wozgen said. 

There is a GoFundMe set up to help out Wozgen. You can find that here.