'It’s just a miracle': Saskatoon woman finds kidney donor after advertising search on her car
After months of driving around the city with an advertisement for a kidney donor on her bright red car, Debbie Onishenko will soon be able to rip off the decals as her search has ended.
Last summer CTV News Saskatoon published a story about Onishenko’s search, which caught the attention of Brent Kruger. He realized he had the same blood type as Onishenko and knew he had to reach out.
“It was clear to me that I had to do it. I would be very upset with myself if I didn’t at least try because if there was a chance that I was a match and I didn’t do it, I don’t think I could live with myself,” Kruger told CTV News.
Between August and January, Kruger says he had at least 40 vials of blood taken for tests, CT scans, MRIs, ultrasounds and more to see if he was healthy enough to donate a kidney.
He had only spoken to Onishenko over the phone until they ran into each other at St. Paul’s Hospital while they were doing some testing.
Saskatoon's Debbie Onishenko is getting creative in her search for a transplant donor. (Keenan Sorokan/CTV News)
“First thing we did was grab each other and hug. We stopped crying and it was amazing to actually meet him in person after just having talked over the phone or through messenger,” Onishenko said.
Kruger says he got the official call last week, receiving the good news that he was a match and a potential kidney donor for Onishenko.
“It’s just a miracle, you think with all the people that live in Saskatoon and there were only a couple few people that called about it. To find out that I actually had a match is unbelievable,” Onishenko said.
While surgery hasn’t been scheduled yet, the pair and their families have gotten to know each other and are well on their way to a lifelong friendship. Kruger says his wife and Onishenko share the same love for Harry Potter.
The pair hopes their story inspires other people to donate whatever they can to a person in need such as blood, plasma and bone marrow.
Onishenko says the experience has changed both their lives for the better.
“I didn’t expect it to have the impact on me that it did. I just went in it for Debbie,” said Kruger.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING | U.S. President Joe Biden touches down in Ottawa
U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in Ottawa Thursday evening for a whirlwind 27-hour visit expected to focus on both the friendly and thorny aspects of the Canada-U.S. relationship, including protectionism and migration on both sides of the border.

Trudeau, Biden could agree to end 'loophole' in Safe Third Country Agreement: CP source
Canada and the United States are negotiating a deal that could see asylum seekers turned back at irregular border crossings across the border, including Roxham Road in Quebec.
Opposition parties affirm call for interference inquiry, amid questions over MP Han Dong
Amid renewed questions over the pervasiveness of alleged interference by China in Canadian elections and affairs broadly, opposition MPs voted Thursday afternoon to affirm a parliamentary committee's call for the federal government to strike a public inquiry.
'Scream as loud as you can': 5 boys rescued from NYC tunnel
Five mischievous boys had to be rescued after they crawled through a storm drain tunnel in New York City and got lost, authorities said.
Asteroid to hurtle past Earth closer than the moon this weekend
An asteroid discovered just last week will pass closer to the Earth than the orbit of the moon this weekend, an occurrence so rare it happens only once in a decade, according to NASA.
Number of Canadians receiving EI at record lows, down 44 per cent from last year: StatCan
The number of Canadians receiving employment insurance benefits are at record lows and down 44 per cent from last year, new figures from Statistics Canada show.
Indigenous sisters developing video games to revitalize Mohawk language
Two Kanien'keha:ka (Mohawk) sisters from Montreal are on a mission that is close to their hearts: to save their ancestors' first language by developing video games young and old can play.
Here are the locations of the first 12 new Zellers stores
Zellers has opened the first of 25 new locations within Hudson's Bay stores across the country. The Canadian retail chain launched 12 stores in Ontario and Alberta Thursday, along with a new e-commerce website.
South Carolina's top accountant to resign after US$3.5-billion error
Embattled South Carolina Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom will resign next month after a US$3.5 billion accounting error in the year-end financial report he oversaw.