"When they said that they were giving us a match, I almost didn't believe it," Liam said.

He added that a lot could have happened between when they told him he had a match and the surgery date, so he didn’t keep his expectations too high.

Kidney transplants are a complicated process, with a donor needing to meet a plethora of criteria to be the perfect match. The donor and recipient undergo evaluations, medical testing, surgery and post-operative care.

In this case, Liam’s family was searching for a living donor. They created Facebook and Instagram pages in hopes of reaching as many people as possible to find the perfect match.

"Social media was the reason we got a donor," David Clegg, Liam’s father, said. "Our donor came directly from our Facebook page."

Liam also believes that social media helped by getting the message out and helping them "connect with a donor base that would be willing to step up."

The Facebook page currently has over 2,500 followers and 1,300 likes, while the Instagram page has over 1,300 followers. The Clegg family shared on both accounts that "over 150, mostly total strangers" volunteered, filled out paperwork and/or got tested. They said the Henry Ford Transplant Institute was overwhelmed by the volume of people who opted to fill out the donor questionnaire.

Liam said now that the transplant is over, he is "elated" and "very grateful" to have found a match and received a donor kidney.

David said he felt "relieved" when they found a kidney for Liam.

During the months of waiting between when Liam was diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease in October to when he received surgery, he was on dialysis three times a week, with each session lasting roughly four hours. Dialysis is a medical treatment which does the job of the kidneys, filtering waste and excess fluid from the blood, when the kidneys are not functioning properly.

"It kind of knocks you out for the rest of the day," Liam said. "So like three days of the week, I would just go on dialysis, and then not really do anything." 

He said during that time he would do some of his hobbies that aren’t physically intensive like play guitar, draw, color in coloring books, listen to music and play a lot more video games than he says he will when he gets his mobility back.

Now Liam is back at home recovering from surgery.

"I'm fine, I mean you know, just had a kidney transplant, so definitely not normal," Liam said. "But I mean, I'd say I'm doing pretty well for the circumstances that are going on." 

Liam is looking forward to getting back to what will be his new normal in East Lansing.

"I'm 20, I wanna go do everything and this has kind of stuck me at home," Liam said.

Liam explained how going back to school in the fall will be good for his mental and physical health.

"He’s looking forward to getting back to Michigan State in the fall," David said.