Heartwarming health stories of 2012

Health headlines sometimes conjure up more bad feelings than good, with all the recalls, disease outbreaks and studies that find Americans are eating their ways to an early grave.

But throughout 2012, several stories that dealt with people facing health issues reflected all that's good in the human spirit.

Just in time for the holidays, here's a look back at some of the feel-good health stories of this past year...

Georgia nurse donates kidney to patient

Twenty-three-year-old Clay Taber of Columbus, Ga. discovered he had kidney failure as he was set to marry his college sweetheart. Nurse Allison Batson at Emory Hospital in Atlanta was especially taken by the young man's plight.

"I have children his age, and I felt the same kind of pain his mother was feeling," she said. "Something inside me said I needed to do more."

Once she learned she had the same blood type as Taber, she donated the kidney on Jan. 10, 2012.

Reddit community comforts Scott Widak

Several of the stories on this list show an outpouring of support from strangers, so it shouldn't be a surprise that several originated on the massive Internet community, Reddit.

When Scott Widak was diagnosed with a terminal liver disease, his nephew Sean O'Connor took to Reddit in May 2012 to ask users to send him letters because the 47-year-old with down syndrome got great joy out of opening mail.

Users responded by sending thousands of letters and gifts.

Widak died in July, The Sun Chronicle reported.

Zachary meets and becomes Hellboy

Zachary, a 6-year-old boy battling leukemia, wanted to meet his favorite comic book and movie hero, Hellboy.

Thanks to Make-A-Wish, Spectral Motion and actor Ron Perlman, who portrayed the character in two films, Zachary's dream became reality. Spectral Motion transformed the boy into his favorite character, and enlisted Pearlman, who happily agreed to go through the three hours of makeup required to transform into the character.

"It was a big payoff to have some small measure of our work have this kind of effect and have this kind of impact of our child," Mike Elizalde, co-founder of Spectral Motion, told CBSNews.com in July.

Man's sister donates kidney to stranger

In April of 2012, the New England Journal of Medicine reported on a medical first that also set the bar for altruism.

Cera Fearing, a 24-year-old of Arlington Heights, Ill., donated a kidney to her older brother Ray, but the organ wasn't taking two weeks after surgery.

Typically when transplanted organs fail in living patients doctors throw them away, but they approached the pair with a unique suggestion: Try donating the organ to another patient in need.

The kidney went to 67-year-old Dr. Erwin Gomez of Valparaiso, Ind., who said he finally feels normal.

Despite his own misfortune, Ray Fearing said he is "extremely happy about being a part of this medical breakthrough" that might end up helping others.

$5 doctor treats town in need

When health care costs and insurance premiums continue to rise in the U.S., 87-year-old Dr. Russell Dohner is an anomaly.

Dohner, of Rushville, Ill., charges patients $5 for any visit, and won't accept medical insurance because he says it's "not worth the bother."

His 85-year-old secretary, Edith Moore, who grew up living next door to the Dohner farm and now accepts the fees from patients, says a few times a day, Dohner tells her "never mind" and tries to quietly let a few go with no charge -- which patients sometimes protest.

"I always just wanted to be a doctor to help people with their medical problems and that's all it's for," says Dohner. "It was never intended to make a lot of money."

Spencer West conquers Kiliminjaro

Spencer West wasn't going to let a genetic disease called sacral agenesis that robbed him of his legs at an early age stop him from achieving his goals.

Flanked by two of his friends, West scaled the highest peak in Africa Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money to bring sustainable water programming to drought-ridden regions of East Africa, documenting his trip on his Redefine Possible website.

While most people born with legs can't accomplish this feat, West refused to let the disability to define him, inspiring many in the process.

"What defines who I am is my name, what I do for my job, what am I interested in. All of those things define who I am. Not just I don't have any legs," West said on CBS This Morning. "So we can talk about that. But then I would rather be known for the work that I do and who I am as a person other than just Spencer West without legs."

Marvel creates superhero from mom's request

Anthony Smith, a 4-year-old boy who lost his hearing to a condition called mosaic trisomy 22, told his mother Christina D'Allesandro that he didn't want to wear his hearing aid because superheroes don't.

Desperate, she reached out to Marvel who came to the rescue and created Blue Ear, a superhero who lost his hearing but became equipped with a special listening device that gave him supersonic hearing.

"We were raised with the words of Stan Lee ringing in our ears: 'With great power, there must also come a great responsibility,'" Marvel editor and writer Bill Rosemann told CBSNews.com in May. "If we don't use whatever skills we have to help others, why are we here at Marvel?"

Diseases diagnosed on Reddit

Bear Silber was despondent that doctors couldn't diagnose the condition causing the active athlete rapid weight gain and high blood pressure.

So he turned to the online community Reddit and found a picture of a man experiencing similar symptoms. After reading through comments, he found one user suggested the man might have Cushing's disease, a condition caused by a tumor that produces high levels of the cortisol hormone and cause muscle weakness, bone pain and upper body obesity.

It turned out Silber had the disease, and he created a video to thank other Redditors

Then in November, a user posted about his male friend jokingly peeing on a pregnancy test and testing positive. Other Reddit users were quick to point out the false test could be a sign of testicular cancer.

The original poster told his friend what the online users had said, and he got tested. The poster reported back that his friend had a small tumor in one of his testicles but because it was found so early, the cancer could be treated immediately.

Seattle Children's Hospital gets Stronger

A lyric in the Kelly Clarkson hit "Stronger says, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," and young patients with cancer at Seattle Children's Hospital's embraced the motto.

Led by 22-year-old Chris Rumble, who had been at the hospital because of leukemia, the ward created a video in May that went viral to show they won't be brought down by their diagnoses.

Reddit grants boy's dream for early book release

A Reddit user in February posted a plea to the community to help his dying friend Nachu read the next installation of his favorite book series, Harry Turtledove's "The War That Came Early." The problem was the next novel wasn't set to be published until July, when kivakid's friend may not live past June because of his terminal cancer.

Kivakid wrote a letter to the American novelist on Reddit, which made it to the site's front page. An author who works with the same publisher, Jason M. Hough, saw the conversation and contacted his editor. Not only did his friend get a copy of the novel in February, but Turtledove offered to call him to discuss the rest of the book series.

Nachu passed away on April 6, a user wrote on YouTube.