Wife thanked anonymous liver donor on Facebook after husband’s stage 4 cancer transplant — discovering who gave him a second chance stunned them
The gift of organ donation can bring hope to families facing some of life's most difficult moments. One stranger’s tremendous act of generosity gave a father a second chance at life. Neither family expected how closely that act would bring them together. For months, the father of four, Kyler Hess, and his family knew someone was willing to do something extraordinary for him. As reported by PEOPLE on October 1, 2026, a stranger had agreed to donate part of their liver so the 38-year-old could have another shot at life. They just didn't know who that person was.
Kyler's wife, Emilie, posted a thank-you on social media to the anonymous donor. The person who saw it was Abby Conley, a woman from their own community whose children attended the same school as Kyler's. She was the anonymous donor. Kyler, who lives in Polk City, Iowa, was diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal cancer in July 2025. He had noticed blood in his stool, and tests revealed that the cancer had spread to his liver, where doctors found more than 15 tumors.
The diagnosis left the family facing a frightening new reality. But Kyler and Emilie wanted to focus on what could actually be done. That led them to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where Kyler underwent treatment. The treatment began to work. His tumors shrank, and doctors eventually determined that a liver transplant could give him another chance.
According to KCCI, Kyler's brother was initially willing to help when he needed a donor. He went through testing, but doctors determined that he couldn't donate because of the anatomy of his liver. Meanwhile, Conley had been following Kyler's story from a distance. She didn't know him personally, but seeing a father with young children go through cancer was enough to make her wonder if she could do something.
Conley had another reason for wanting to help. Her father died of leukemia in 2021. He had been waiting for a transplant but was later ruled out because of a lung infection. She traveled to Mayo Clinic and spent three days undergoing tests. Then she found out she was a match. Kyler wasn't told who the donor was. For the time being, all he knew was that someone had agreed to donate part of their liver to him. Conley saw the post and decided it was time to introduce herself. She contacted the Hess family and revealed that she was the person who had volunteered to donate part of her liver.
Learning about the volunteer donor made the connection feel even more personal. Conley wasn't someone the Hess family had never crossed paths with. Their children already knew each other. Kyler's son reached out to Conley's daughter and thanked her for what her mother was doing for their family, after seeing his father go through months of cancer treatment.
The transplant eventually took place, and both Kyler and Conley began recovering. For Kyler, the operation meant the possibility of getting back to the life he had been afraid he might lose. He wanted to see his children grow up and be there for the moments he might otherwise have missed. A GoFundMe page has also been launched to help ease the family's financial pressure.
According to the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, stage IV colorectal cancer means the disease has spread beyond the colon or rectum through the bloodstream and lymphatic system to distant organs. The liver and lungs are the most common sites of spread. According to SEER data, people with metastatic colorectal cancer that has spread to distant organs have a five-year relative survival rate of 15.6%.