GRAND RAPIDS -- Chris Austin now can work the pit crew at car races, hang out with his sons, and spend his days landscaping, thanks to the gift of a kidney from a woman he never met until Tuesday night.

Austin was overwhelmed with gratitude when he laid eyes on Susan Matheson for the first time at Saint Mary's Health Care Lacks Cancer Center.

"It didn't just change my life; it changed my kids' lives. It gave us our life back," said Austin, who suffered renal failure, which required daily dialysis for five years.

Austin, 39, expressed his thanks to Matheson, who peppered him with questions.

"How's your health?" was the first.

Matheson, 47, is the hospital's first altruistic donor. On Jan. 11, she donated her kidney to Austin, of Grand Ledge, after he spent years on a donor waiting list.

"I honestly never thought it would happen," said Austin, a single father of two. "For someone to be willing to do that, who you don't know, is amazing."

Austin is doing well and has returned to work full-time for his landscaping company. He works a pit crew member for race car drivers and recently spent five days at the Canadian Sprint Car Nationals.

Matheson, a freelance writer and editor from southeast Grand Rapids, said she was inspired by a Grand Rapids Press column in 2009 by Tom Rademacher about Harry Damon, a Grand Rapids man who donated a kidney to a stranger in California, starting a kidney chain of 10 donors.

Days later, she called Saint Mary's and told them she wanted to donate. They had no procedures in place for donors with no ties to the person needing the organ, but agreed to allow her to be evaluated. After an extensive screening process, she underwent laparoscopic surgery to collect one of her kidneys.

"I was having a midlife crisis, and I was looking for an adventure," said Matheson, the mother of four children between the ages 17 and 10. She also works as a production assistant for the Inner Compass television show produced at Calvin College.

"I really resonate with the idea of using my body to give life," she said.

Austin and Matheson spoke on the phone in April, getting to know each other during an hour-long conversation.

Austin's children, Christian, 17, and Mackenzie, 15, said they're grateful their father is no longer limited by his disease, with dialysis taking up much of his time.

"He can actually do stuff he wants to do," Christian said.

Austin and Matheson's meeting was part of the hospital's Living Kidney Donor Celebration.

Missy Ostapowicz, Saint Mary's transplant coordinator, said they were motivated by Matheson to begin working with anonymous donors to increase the number of living donors. Last year, 92 transplants were performed at the hospital, with 39 from living donors.

Since Matheson, two other anonymous people have donated and three more are going through the process.

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