When Patricia Abdullah learned someone at the communications seminar she was attending last year suffered from incurable kidney disease, she didn't just extend her sympathies. Instead, she and other conference participants banded together to help find a kidney for the man who had spent the last five years traveling the country in search of a donor. And, when it turned out that Patricia shared the same blood type as the sick man, she got tested to see if she herself was a match. As it turns out, she was, and just two weeks after September 11, Patricia, who is a Muslim, donated her kidney to the man, who is an African-American Christian.

Two months later, the man who received Patricia's kidney was running and walking four miles a day. Patricia learned that the only way her kidney could have matched his better was if they had been born identical twins.

Today, the kidney recipient has started a foundation to educate people about the benefits of being a live donor. He and Patricia are close friends, and participated in a triathlon together this past summer.

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