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Jul 1

Turning Point: Maple Grove man donates kidney to one-time stranger

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Triathlete John Barker of Maple Grove donated a kidney to his parents' neighbor. ( Photo courtesy of John Barker)

Relationships Turning Point

In 2007, John Barker of Maple Grove began participating in triathlons as a way to lose weight and feel better. In 2009, a chance encounter with his parents' neighbor in Wisconsin gave him additional perspective on the gift of health.

"It was Thanksgiving 2009," Barker said. "We were visiting my parents in Wisconsin. We were putzing around in the yard when we saw their neighbor, Lee Kreklow."

Barker, 43, a married father with two grown daughters, and Kreklow, 48, a married father with two young daughters, didn't really know each other.

"I moved into the neighborhood back in 1987, the same year that John left for college," Kreklow said.

"Until that day, we had never actually talked," Barker said.

"We would just wave hello," Kreklow said.

It changed that day.

"(Kreklow) was walking around with his two little girls, helping them deliver goodie baskets they had made at church," Barker said. "By the way he was carrying himself, I could tell he was pretty ill. I got to talking to him and I learned he was dying of kidney disease."

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Turning Point: Maple Grove man donates kidney to one-time stranger

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