Ben Harder will be leaning on God as he heads out on a 983-kilometre bike ride this weekend to bless his friend's son, who needs a new kidney.
Harder, an RCMP officer in Northern Manitoba, felt called to go on this adventure after donating a kidney to his brother, who also struggled with kidney disease.
"My brother was diagnosed with a kidney disease called IgA nephropathy almost 15 years ago," said Ben. "Two years ago, in the summer of 2021, the doctors finally allowed us to do a kidney transplant."
Harder says he had done testing for two years before that to see if he would be a match for his brother, and sure enough, he was.
"That was cool. I learned a lot in a very short period about myself, my kidneys, the body, that kind of stuff," Harder explained. "I donated a kidney to him in the summer of 2021. Recovery was a couple of months, and then I was back to work."
Ben says he and his brother were very close growing up, so giving up a kidney was a no-brainer.
"Seeing the way he had to live in that time was tough. He couldn't even take care of his kids. He was too tired, just sick. So that was tough for me. And if I could do something to help, I just wanted to try to do it."
From one selfless act to another, Ben is now preparing to head out on a 983-kilometre, two-week bike ride from Defiance, Ohio, to a Church Conference in Decatur, Alabama, to raise funds for his friend, Aaron's son, Alex, who is currently battling kidney disease.
"I went down to Alabama in September of last year for a military training like boot camp at a church called Warrior Revolution," said Ben. "I met Aaron Hobson, Alex's dad, and on day two of our program, the pastor came in and told us to stop what we were doing."
Aaron had received a phone call that his 19-year-old son was life-flighted to a hospital in Cleveland due to his kidney disease, similar to Ben's brothers.
"I talked to him after we were having lunch after we heard about what was happening and me and him just sat down together for like half an hour and we just prayed and talked and shared some stories. And I told him what I had done. And I'm like, there's no way that we're here by chance, bro. It's definitely a God thing that we're here together."
"It was something that he needed to hear or something that I needed to talk about, cause I've never really used my experience for anything like that before."
Aaron ended up leaving the next day to be with his family. Ben stayed in touch with the family and just felt called to help them out.
Ben will head out from Winnipeg to Ohio today. He will spend tomorrow with the Hopsons before hopping on his bike early Sunday morning.
"I'm not a biker. I'm pretty scared about it. It's gonna be like an experience of a lifetime."
The plan is to bike for about 8-10 hours a day or 120 miles.
A GiveSendGo account has been set up for Alex. The hope is to raise $50,000.