Boston School Custodian Andrew Allen, 53, Gave a Kidney to a Stranger So a Teacher’s 24-Year-Old Brother With Kidney Failure Could Move Up the Transplant List

Andrew Allen could not give his kidney to the young man he wanted to help, so he gave it to someone he had never met. The 53-year-old night-shift custodian at Boston Arts Academy donated through a swap program that moved Tom Thermidor, the younger brother of one of the school’s geometry teachers, up the list for a transplant, The Boston Globe reported.

Thermidor, now 24, received a new kidney in August 2025. On Oct. 2, the Boston Arts Academy Foundation surprised Allen with an unsung hero award, and Gov. Maura Healey, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley issued proclamations in his honor.

Three Brothers Ruled Out

Allen works nights at the academy in the Fenway. One evening, he noticed that Thermidor, then a student at Babson College, seemed down, according to the Globe. Thermidor, who was in stage 5 kidney failure, told him he had just been rejected as a potential donor. His two older brothers had been rejected as well.

That same night, Allen filled out an online application to the Mass General Living Donor Program.

Kidney failure means the kidneys are working at less than 15% of normal, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. At that point, waste and extra fluid build up in the body, and the options to replace lost kidney function are dialysis or a transplant.

How a Swap Moved Tom Up the List

Allen and Thermidor’s blood types were not an exact match. Instead of ending there, Allen’s kidney went to another patient through a swap program, and that donation moved Thermidor up the recipient list, the Globe reported. Allen had surgery on June 3, 2025. Thermidor received a kidney from an anonymous donor on Aug. 20, 2025.

Swaps like this are known as paired donation. The federal Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network describes it as a group of donor-patient pairs in which each donor is incompatible with their own intended patient but compatible with another pair’s patient, and everyone agrees to exchange kidneys within the group. Donors can withdraw from evaluation up until surgery, the network says.

Mass General Brigham runs its own paired-kidney exchange for incompatible donor pairs and says its living donor kidney team performs more living donor kidney transplants than any other center in New England.

A Surprise on National Custodian Day

The foundation timed the award to National Custodian Day, according to the Globe. Allen, a married father of two young adults who lives in Roslindale and spends his free time running and skateboarding, brushed off the attention.

“Anybody can do this,” he told the Globe, calling himself “just a regular schmuck.”

Thermidor saw it differently. “Andrew has been a beacon of light in a place that was very dark,” he said.

Thermidor was born in Haiti, moved to Boston at 11 and went through public schools in Hyde Park, Mattapan and Jamaica Plain. He graduated from Babson in May and now works for Mass General Brigham as an associate coordinator in development and philanthropy.

The Waiting List Behind One Kidney

Allen’s donation reached past one family. As of July 30, 2026, 109,817 people were on the national transplant waiting list, and 12 people die each day waiting for an organ, according to the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. Kidneys are the organ most in demand, and more than 49,000 transplants of all kinds were performed in 2025.

Donors who give to someone they do not know are often called good Samaritan or altruistic donors, and they can anchor a chain that links several incompatible pairs, creating a series of transplants, according to Mayo Clinic.

For Allen, the math was simpler. A colleague’s brother needed a kidney, his own could not go to him directly, and a stranger’s could.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Office of U.S. Senator Ed Markey – Public domain/Wikimedia Commons