The wife of a Vietnam veteran from Billings is calling it a "Christmas Miracle...a new lease on life."

Dan Landon is a Vietnam veteran and former area firefighter who has been spending months on the wait list for a kidney transplant.

On Tuesday afternoon, his wife Charlene shared the incredible news with me via email:

Our new development is our Christmas Miracle. Dan has his new kidney as of 2:42 a.m., 12/10 Monday. A matching donor was found!!

Charlene added:

Dan is currently in ICU and doing very well with his new kidney. We will spend Christmas in a hotel near the hospital BUT he now has a new lease on life and a future!!

Now that he has the new kidney, and the new lease on life, the Landon's are still in great need of help from their fellow Montanans. In addition to bills that have racked up over the past several months, they will need to continue to stay in hotels close to the hospital in Iowa while doctors monitor his new kidney.

Friends are asking that the community provide any help they can in order to defray medical, travel, and other necessary expenses. They've set up a fund at First Interstate Bank in Laurel, and you can also click here for the GoFundMe page.

Charlene also wants to encourage everyone to look into being a kidney donor.

There are now over 115,000 people in the US waiting for kidney donors and 280 people in Billings on dialysis, some of which are not healthy enough to receive a transplant.

Dan's friends, Dave Pals of Billings and John Smart of Laurel, joined us on Wednesday's Montana Talks radio show to talk about the great news, and the help still needed for the Landon family. We also got a great call later in the morning from the Landon's family friend Susan Brockie. Click below to listen to the audio:

 

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