A year ago, Jesse Mermell was busy on the campaign trail running in the Democratic Primary for Massachusetts’ 4th Congressional District. Now, she's consulting for nonprofits, fully recovered from a recent surgery.She decided to donate a kidney to Rosina Lucibello."I was honored,” Lucibello said. “She's a wonderful person.”Lucibello said her father suffered from kidney disease and eight years ago, her kidneys began to fail.By fall of 2020, Lucibello was on dialysis up to nine hours a day."The key to getting through those (treatments) at that time was just being focused,” she said. “Then also having hope that I could find a donor."Lucibello said she figured why not try posting an appeal for help on Facebook.That is where Mermell saw her plea."No one in my family could qualify,” Lucibello said. “I needed to find somebody with my blood type, which is A.""I just immediately thought, 'oh, well that's me. I can do this,'" Mermell said.The two had known each other through political activism but weren't close friends.Mermell said she certainly didn't know all of what being a donor would entail, but she did know a bit about what Lucibello was going through."My dad actually ran the kidney dialysis center in the little town I grew up in," she said. "I just got to see how awful kidney disease is."The procedures took place in May at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.Dr. Amy Evenson performed the transplant for Lucibello."The protection and the safety of both our donor and recipient are our utmost priority,” Evenson said. “We have separate teams evaluating each donor and each recipient."Evenson said the need for donors is tremendous."There are about 110,000 (people) waiting for transplants in the U.S. right now, and the vast majority of those are for kidney transplants,” she said. “Over 90,000 (people) are waiting."Lucibello, who is recovering well, continues to be overwhelmed by Mermell's generosity.“She's almost like a second another sister I have,” Lucibello said. “For someone to give you that type of gift is just incredible."Mermell credits her grandmother for teaching her an important life lesson, to always help solve a problem if you can."That can play out in public service,” she said. “That can play out working for a nonprofit. That can play out helping someone across the street, and it could play out as giving a kidney or some other organ. I think there's a thread between all of it."Lucibello’s Facebook page looking for a kidney is still active. She is using it now to help connect others in need with potential donors.