A Texas teacher is going the extra mile to help one of her students.
Lindsey Painter decided to donate one of her kidneys to her six-year-old student, Matthew Parker, who suffers from kidney failure.
Painter, 34, found out about her student's condition in December, after Matthew's mother, Lisa, held a press conference to solicit potential donors for her son.
The boy's family members were not a match, and a successful donor could only be found in one per cent of the population.
Miraculously, Matthew's own first grade teacher was a perfect match.
"I feel lucky," the Hoffman Lane Elementary School teacher told PEOPLE.
Matthew is a triplet, and weighed just 1 lb. 15 oz. when he and his brothers were born over four months early.
He suffered from a blood infection and low blood pressure that caused his kidney failure, and began dialysis as a toddler. A kidney he received at the age of two was rejected, and his brothers are too young to donate.
Matthew's chance of finding a donor was also decreased because his body had developed antibodies to most kidneys.
Painter, who has two sons of her own, said that she had to see if she could help.
"I watch my healthy, active, loud, wild children running around," she said. "Matthew deserves more. He deserves to live a normal, healthy, active life like my boys."
The transplant is scheduled for March 19 in San Antonio. Dr. Mazen Arar, Matthew's nephrologist at the University Transplant Center at University Hospital, said the child's life will be forever changed.
"It will give him freedom," Arar said. He will be able to attend school every day instead of only twice a week because of dialysis, he will be able to eat a variety of foods, and he will have more energy.
Painter hoped he will be able to return to school before the end of the term "so he can celebrate graduating first grade with his classmates – and his new kidney."
