CRANBERRY TWP — Laura English doesn't like to wait.

In 2015, her husband, Bill, found himself in and out of hospitals and on dialysis as doctors searched for the cause of his failing kidneys.

“It was tough in the beginning because I was working full time, commuting an hour each way,” he said.

This gave the Bellmawr, N.J., resident little to no time to spend with his wife and two boys, who are 2 and 4. And the schedule, along with dialysis treatments, began to take a toll. Bill English said his employers must have noticed, because they decided to lay him off.

The Englishes began working to find Bill a new kidney.

He got his name on the national transplant list and prepared to wait the expected five to seven years.

Laura English didn't wait that long.

“My wife made the Instagram page, the Facebook page and the Twitter,” he said. “I'm not one to draw attention to myself. It was a little awkward for me, but it ended up working out.”

Eventually, Laura English found a post on an organ donation site that had gone viral on Facebook. She wrote a comment on the post asking people to consider donating a kidney to her husband.

Hundreds of miles away in Butler County, Amy Pauvlinch was scrolling through her phone and saw that plea.

“I call it divine intervention (that) led me to Bill English's story,” said Pauvlinch, a 2008 Seneca Valley High School graduate. “When I saw their post it was like magic. It's so hard to describe. For some reason that specific post stood out to me and sparked something inside.”

Pauvlinch told Bill English the decision was easy.

“She said she couldn't imagine our kids growing up without a father,” he said.

The following year was trying for Pauvlinch. She applied to donate through Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia and began working with the hospital to schedule testing after finding out her kidney was a match for English.

“You have to get EKG, chest X-ray, 50 plus tubes of blood,” she said. “And then when I went out there you have to meet a psychologist, you have to meet a social worker, you have to meet a financial coordinator, your surgeon, your nephrologist, a dietitian, a donor advocate.”

At any point, a bad test result could get her rejected.

“At the end of the day, they could tell me 'no' in the middle of surgery if they felt something,” Pauvlinch said. “And that's the most stressful part, because you have someone's life on the line. I was almost told 'no' three days before surgery.”

After all the tests and close calls, Pauvlinch arrived at Jefferson Hospital on July 3, ready to give English a kidney.

But one last obstacle remained.

“We got to the hospital at 5:30 in the morning, met there together and there ended up being a huge water main break in the hospital,” Pauvlinch said.

Hospital staff started sending people home and told them that the operation may have to wait for another day. Pauvlinch, however, wasn't postponing.

“After all the hardships we had been through, I was just like, 'There's no way,'” she said. “I'm just not leaving this hospital until my kidney is out of my body, whether I have to do it or you have to do it.'”

Two hours later, they were given the green light.

“It was I think the most beautiful moment I'll ever experience in my life,” she said. “Nothing will top the moment you get to look into someone's eyes and just tell them, 'We finally did it.'”

The operation went smoothly, and five hours later Pauvlinch and English were back in hospital rooms recovering.

“Just the look of him even presurgery to post-surgery ... He's a whole new man,” Pauvlinch said. “You don't think something that just takes five hours can make the physical appearance of someone change so much.”

Pauvlinch recovered quickly and drove home 10 days later. She speaks daily with Bill English.

English said the experience restored his faith in humanity, that a stranger would take a year to donate one of their organs to someone in need. He said he feels “really good,” and is expecting to live a normal life.

The woman who saved his life remains more than just a close family friend.

“I really feel like she's a family member,” English added.

Both say the transplant changed their lives for the better, though in vastly different ways.

“It's so nice not to be tied to a machine and have a little more freedom,” he said.

Meanwhile, Pauvlinch is looking for ways to spread the word about living organ donation. She encourages anyone who can to look into and consider donating an organ to someone in need.

“It's the greatest feeling in the entire world,” she said. “I think everybody needs to understand it's not as scary, and it's literally saving someone's life. ... Everyone deserves a fair chance, and if they're not given a fair chance, it's hard to sit back and watch that happen.”