NYPD Officer Vadrien Alston meets woman who donated kidney after seeing her story on CBS2
NEW YORK -- Nearly two years ago, CBS New York introduced you to a Brooklyn mother who was desperately searching for a new kidney.
Now, she is back at work as an NYPD officer and finally meeting the woman who selflessly saved her life after seeing the story on CBS2 News.
Back in 2021, CBS2's Ali Bauman first interviewed NYPD Officer Vadrien Alston, a mother of two with renal failure and in dire need of a new kidney.
"So I'm just patiently waiting," Alston said at the time.
That story aired around the country, when Brooklyn native Sophia Jackson happened to see it on a TV in Maryland.
Jackson was compelled to donate her own kidney, and even though Jackson was not a match for Officer Alston, by donating on her behalf, Alston was able to move up on the waiting list.
"If I can help, why not?" Jackson said after her kidney surgery in October 2022.
"On behalf of the entire NYPD, we say thank you for giving the gift of life, the gift of hope and the gift of optimism," said NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper to Jackson on Tuesday, three months after Officer Alston got her new kidney.
Alston was finally able to meet Jackson, the woman who saved her life, in NYPD headquarters Tuesday.
"It was just finally nice after watching your story and listening to your interview to just finally be able to meet you in person. Thank you," Jackson said to Alston.
"Thank you. I can't wait for my children to meet you," Alston replied. "Just to show my children that, you know what, even though we live in a world where it's just totally crazy, and sometimes I go home and tell them the crazy stories, that you still have some of the most magnificent people in the world that don't mind going above and beyond for a stranger. And what you did is just living proof of that."
Jackson said she never wavered in her decision to donate.
"What was it about seeing her that made you decide, I'm gonna give my kidney?" Bauman asked.
"Her optimism, actually," replied Jackson.
That optimism never made Alston doubt this day would come.
"I know that once you ask God for something, He will deliver," said Alston, "and you just have to keep the faith."
Even when it comes from the unexpected.
"Without the first story on CBS, Ms. Jackson would have never known about Vadrien," NYPD First Deputy Commissioner Edward Caban said. "We owe a special thank you to Ali Bauman and the team at CBS."
The average wait for a kidney is eight to ten years. Right now, there are more than 97,000 people in the United States waiting for a new one.
"Some people feel as if when they donate the organ, that it's gonna prohibit them from living a normal life, but it doesn't. It doesn't," Alston said. "What it actually does is it helps save someone else so they can live a normal life as well."
After meeting each other's families, Officer Alston brought Jackson to Transit District 30 in Brooklyn so she could meet her family in blue.
"Thank you for putting yourself out there," Jackson told Alston.
"Thank you for hearing me," Alston replied.
It took nearly two years, two states and two kidneys, but now these two women are connected for life.
For more information on how you can become a living kidney donor, visit kidneyregistry.org.