Now THAT is a Friend!

There are few things that bring two people closer than serving together in the military. It’s a brotherhood like no other, but for Billy Welsh and John Gladwell their deep connection goes even beyond that.

Billy and John served side-by-side in the Marine Corps over 20 years ago. They’ve kept in touch on Facebook and stayed friends, but in 2019 John saw an unforgettable post on Billy’s timeline. He asked, “Does anyone have a spare kidney laying around? Mine's junk and I need a new one.” And for John it was just one of those moments where you KNOW what you have to do.

He got tested and discovered he was a match for Billy, then in October 2020 they underwent a 10 hour surgery where John was able to successfully donate a kidney to his dear friend. John said his mission was to make sure that Billy’s son got to keep his dad around for awhile longer.

Here’s where the story takes kind of a fun turn. John is a fan of the Kansas City Chiefs and Billy is a fan of the Philadelphia Eagles so they exchanged jerseys with each other, as a sign of their admiration for one another.

Their story made the rounds and recently the NFL heard about it. The heads of both the Chiefs and the Eagles worked together to honor both of these generous veterans with a gift of their own – tickets to this weekend’s Super Bowl.

This friendship has seen some pretty incredible stuff with another amazing memory on the way!