North Raleigh Today

Most people can remember their favorite teachers and other educators who made a big impact on them early in life -- but how often are students in a position to help a teacher through a crisis?

Valerie Bishop, a Wake Tech cosmetology instructor, is the type of teacher who builds strong bonds with her students at the community college level. Those bonds are so strong that when she told her classes she had stage 5 kidney disease, some of the students stepped up to help, with one saying she’d be willing to give up one of her kidneys.

“I shared with my students that I may be missing some time because I had to do doctor appointments. And they were inquiring what was going on,” Bishop told ABC 11 News.

Carrie Fisher, one of Bishop's students, said she'd be willing to donate a kidney. Fisher told the news station that when she sets her mind to something, she does it. Since last year, she has undergone a battery of tests to see if she’s a match for Bishop.

When medical personnel told Fisher her body mass index (BMI) was too high to safely undergo a transplant, Fisher went on a fitness regimen to drop some weight and get her BMI down. She's lost 38 pounds in three months.

“There is no way, if this is not meant to be, there is no way that I would have lost that much weight,” Fisher told ABC News.

Meanwhile, Bishop said her daughter started a GoFundMe fundraiser to help with medical costs for her mom's potential kidney transplant. Many of Bishop's students have climbed aboard, making it their mission to get the word out so that donations would come in.

"They have definitely showed their love," Bishop told ABC11. "They have stepped above and beyond. My students have been such a blessing to me in so many different ways. I'm just grateful."