A 32-year-old man from Tulsa, Oklahoma made a sacrifice in January that ended up saving a complete stranger’s life. 3 months later, that stranger decided to write him a ‘thank you’ letter, and it’s so touching we can hardly stand it.

The man, who goes by the username TheBartian, made the courageous decision to donate one of his kidneys to an anonymous recipient. His transplant center later forwarded the letter to him, which he posted as a way to raise awareness of altruistic kidney donation. According to the National Kidney Foundation, more than 101,000 Americans need a kidney, but only 17,000 people receive one each year. A healthy person only needs one kidney to survive, and that ‘spare’ one could mean life or death for someone with renal failure.

TheBartian shared the letter on Reddit along with the moving story behind it, and struck a major chord with other users. The thread now has almost 40 thousand upvotes, and has received an outpouring of praise, as well as other stories of similar experiences. As for his plans to respond? “Maybe I should just let him know that it hasn’t changed my lifestyle at all, except for taking a little better care of myself and letting him know I took care of the kidney when it was mine. That it came from a good home,” he commented on Reddit.

Follow the heartwarming story below, and find out more about kidney donation here.

Transcript: Hello, my name is [redacted]. I am 63 years old and I have a son named S. When S. was 6 years old his mother passed away after battling cancer for 5 years. This has put me and my son very close. After many years I remarried a lady named [redacted]. We live on a small farm in a town called [redacted].

I now have 3 grandsons named [redacted], [redacted],and [redacted]. My son and my 3 grand sons are my life, I do not do anything without one of the 4. Because of the gift you gave me on Jan 5th 2017 I think I will get to see more basketball games, more baseball games, and more football games.

I really want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, because of you I am going to have a better and longer life.

Thank you, [redacted]

People were very impressed with the guy

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