Kidney from Kia - but could mom keep it?

PORTLAND, Maine - A young woman who wanted to be "a healthy mom for my two-year-old" went pro-active and advertised for one on the rear window of her Kia Soul.

She scored - but then the  problems started  when an effort to raise money for the out-of-work donor prompted a hospital ethics review.

But there was a happy ending: Christine Royles, 24, and donor Josh Dall-Leighton, 30, from a nearby Maine town were admitted on Tuesday, June 16 - Youth Day in South Africa - to the Maine Medical Centre in Portland after months of medical tests and legal delays.

CAMPAIGN GONE WRONG?

Here's how it all went down after the young man saw the sad advert...

He contacted Royles, a stranger, in early March 2015 after he seeing her plea in a shopping-mall car car park. It read: "My two-year-old son needs a healthy mom. I need a kidney transplant. Call or text." 

Royles, floored by her potential donor's generosity, began an online fund-raising campaign to cover his expenses while the father of three was out of work. It raised the equivalent of nearly R613 500 - which the hospital queried with 'money for organs' ethical questions.

CHRONIC DISEASE

The US National Organ Transplant Act outlaws the sale of human organs and federal law prohibits donors from profiting from a transplant - but a hospital spokesman said the legal and ethical questions were resolved. By now, plucky Royles, should be enjoying a new lease on life.

She had a chronic auto-immune disease that caused her kidneys to fail in 2013 - just one of 120 000 people in the US who are waiting for a kidney and of which about 13 a day die without one being found.

Maybe those waiting should try advertising, too...