MOSCOW -- A family from Lackawanna County is hoping to harness the power of social media to secure something they so desperately need -- a kidney.
The problem? They've been trying to keep it all a secret from their husband and dad -- who would be the one needing the transplant. And while people typically say nothing on the internet is a secret, if your Dad doesn't do social media -- Facebook is a pretty good place to keep things under wraps!
Jason Lewis doesn't enjoy being the center of attention, although that would be quite the feat when you're the Dad of six kids ages 18 to 2.
"He's a quiet, humble type guy," explained his wife, Melissa Lewis.
So humble, his wife Melissa says he wasn't likely to ask for help even when his life was on the line.
Jason is in stage five kidney failure caused by a genetic disorder. He's on a registry list but transplant centers suggested the Lewis family look elsewhere, too. So, Melissa and the kids decided to look in a place Jason would never go: Facebook.
"He doesn't really like Facebook, so he's not used to people, like, him being shown by everybody," said daughter Savannah.
The eight-year-old Savannah took the reigns -- making videos that have been viewed thousands of times. It was all done without Jason's knowledge for four months -- that is until someone recognized him from the Facebook video.
"He called me up and said, 'What did you do?'," Melissa said.
There's still some element of surprise, though -- Jason didn't know that Melissa and the five little kids came to see us at Newswatch 16.
"He's probably going to say, 'oh, I'm so proud of them,'" Savannah said.
How could he not be with these faces in your corner -- plus thousands online he doesn't even know.
The family started two separate Facebook pages in March, and since then six people have come forward offering to donate kidneys. While four of them have been denied, they are waiting on test results from the other two to see if either of them might be a match for Jason.
