Randy Simpkins knows God was at work when he gave a kidney last year to Russell Dallas, a man he’d never met.
Simpkins, a preacher from Carrollton, was supposed to be volunteering as a chaplain ministering to hikers on the Appalachian trail but turned back because of bad weather. That freed up his schedule to go to a women’s religious retreat, where he overheard Dallas’ wife discussing her husband’s desperate need for a kidney.
Doctors later gave him little hope that he could help, saying the chances of the two being a transplant match were 1 in 10,000. Tests showed otherwise, and they became known as the “miracle match.”
Now, more than a year after their successful surgery, Simpkins and Dallas are bonded for life and dedicated to another cause: finding kidneys for the estimated 100,000 Americans who are on waiting lists for a transplant.
The two are working to bring their story to the big screen, convince others to be tested to be possible donors, and wipe out the waiting list.
“We’re not going to stop until we achieve our goal,” said Simpkins, owner of a family business, pastor of First Methodist Church of Bowdon, and a former Carroll County commissioner. “And if it takes the rest of my life, we’re going to do it.”
A first-class production that can draw millions is expected to cost about $5 million.
They have raised about $400,000, including $50,000 from a woman who read their story in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Inspire Atlanta feature in June and wrote a check. The woman had donated a kidney 15 years ago to save an 18-month-old baby who is still living, Simpkins said.