'Joe is just a hero': Four-year-old LaSalle boy gets kidney transplant from stranger

Windsor, Ont. -

A Windsor man is giving up a piece of himself to save a young boy’s life, but up until recently, the pair had never met.

Joe Marchand successfully underwent transplant surgery Friday in Toronto, donating his kidney to four-year-old Carson Hillier.

“Anxious would be my biggest description for how I’m feeling today, but I’m excited for the future,” says Carson’s mother, Megan Hillier. “I’m not excited for this moment per say, but I’m excited for what this will bring for our future.”

Carson was born with what’s called posterior urethral valves, which caused damage to his kidneys. He now has stage 5 kidney disease and was in desperate need of a new one.

And then along came Joe Marchand.

“We didn’t know Joe before this,” says Ryan Hillier, Carson’s father, noting Joe Marchand was a total stranger, their only connection being the fact that their kids went to the same daycare.

When Marchand learned about Carson’s need through the daycare, he was tested and confirmed as a match.

On Friday afternoon, one of Marchand’s kidneys was successfully harvested and sent to Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto where it’s being transplanted into Carson.

“At the end of the day, Joe is just a hero from the community who has given us the best gift that we could ask for,” says Megan Hillier.

As the family waits for the procedure to wrap up and rehab to begin, the story of Marchand’s selflessness has spread to both Carson’s brother’s school -- LaSalle Public School — and Marchand’s kids’ school, Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

“There’s a lot of superheroes in our world… but this is a different level of superhero,” says Our Lady of Mount Carmel principal, Anna Mancini. “It was such a selfless and beautiful gesture on his part, so we wanted to bring attention to it.”

Students at both schools, as well as the daycare which made the connection, wore green in support of transplant awareness.