White Sox Fan Donates Kidney To Save Cubs Fan

In spite of baseball's unwritten rule about Cubs and Sox fans hating each other for eternity, a Cubs fan is alive today because of the gift of life from a Sox fan.

Wow. The surprises that 2020 has had for us just keep going and going.

This surprising and heartwarming story begins with a woman named Bridget Kolls, who was diagnosed with kidney failure in 2017. With that diagnosis, Bridget regularly underwent dialysis as part of her treatment.

Until one day when she decided that she'd had enough of the dialysis. Bridget decided to take her appeal for a new kidney to a wide audience. She made a sign before attending a Cubs-Marlins game, one that she said she wanted to be "super-pretty and worth it.'

Her sign read: "This Little Cubbie Needs A Kidney."

That did the trick. After being shown on TVs around the country and being shared endlessly on social media, the calls started coming in. Then, after several tests and screenings of potential donors, she got a call from her medical team telling her that they'd found a kidney match.

The match was from a man named Tom Alessio, who just happened to be a die-hard Chicago White Sox fan. Tom is a man who wholeheartedly believes in giving of oneself to make life better for others...even Cubs fans.

Tom had long been on the bone-marrow donors list, and regularly gave plasma while in college.

Well, to sum it all up, surgery was performed in July, and both Bridget and Tom are feeling fantastic.

WGN-TV News:

“I’m very thankful and if I could tell him every day that’s would I would do — thank him every day.”

Despite being a huge Sox fan, Alessio’s father actually played for the Cubs in the minors. Kolls said that even though a rival fan donated a kidney, she has no plans to switch teams.

“When I go to Jewel, they have the Cubs and Sox peanuts and I do buy both now,” she said. The two have met and their families will meet after the pandemic subsides.

As a long-time Cubs fan, I've learned a very valuable lesson here--at least one White Sox fan is pretty okay. I've heard there are more, but I'm taking a wait-and-see attitude for now.

Strange as it may seem, this sort of exchange between Cubs and Sox fans has happened before. Take a look: