Islanders fan uses homemade sign to help find kidney donor

Madison Sanalitro is like most New York Islanders fans in all ways but one.
The Middle Island, New York native needs a kidney.

Sanalitro was diagnosed with Stage 4 kidney failure at age 18. One year later, it progressed to Stage 5 and she went on dialysis for nearly three months until she got a transplant.
Now, at 26-years-old, for no reason known to her doctors, Sanalitro again went into kidney failure. She is looking for a kidney donation match, hoping the Islanders fan base and hockey fans everywhere can help her find one.
On Jan. 22, Sanalitro brought homemade signs to the Islanders game against the Toronto Maple Leafs at UBS Arena. One read, "I need a hero, kidney donor needed! Blood type A or O, positive or negative." On the front of another, she wrote, "Calling all hockey fans! I need a Kidney! Kidney! Kidney!"
Sanalitro drew inspiration from Pittsburgh Penguins fan Kelly Sowatsky, who brought a sign of the same plea to PPG Paints Arena on March 31, 2018. Through a

and
social media traction
, Sowatsky found a kidney donor and received a new kidney
Nov. 6, 2018
.
Hoping for the same outcome, the back of the sign Sanalitro brought to UBS Arena in 2022 said the same as the back of the one Sowatsky brought to PPG Paints Arena in 2018 -- except for the player name -- reading, "Hey Pelech, I'd love a stick but what I really need is a kidney."
Sanalitro went down to the rink during warmups and pushed the backside of her sign to the glass, where it got the attention of Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech. After the game, Sanalitro waited by the parking lot where the players leave the building. Before Pelech pulled out of the lot, he saw Sanalitro with her sign, stopped and got out of his car.
"I saw you in warmups and I didn't forget about you," Sanalitro recalled Pelech saying.
The 2022 NHL All-Star then pulled a stick out from his trunk, signed it and gave it to her.
"He was so sweet and amazing," Sanalitro said. "I brought another sign to a game after that and I wrote, "Thank you Pelech for the stick," and put a picture of us on it. He acknowledged it, smiled and waved at me during warmups. He's been so kind to me it's crazy."
It's that kindness that caused Sanalitro to appeal to Islanders nation.
"I think [Islanders fans] are so caring," Sanalitro said. "They're like my second family now. They all seem like they want to help. They're all so positive as well, thinking I'm going to find my match this way."

Madison Sanalitro and Adam Pelech pose with Sanalitro's homemade sign outside UBS Arena on Jan. 22, 2022.
Sanalitro was first introduced to the Islanders and their fan base in 2017, when her boyfriend Alex brought her to her first game at Barclays Center. After one game, she was hooked on hockey.
"It was so much fun, the whole atmosphere, all the players, everything," she said. "Ever since I went to one game, we've been to so many together. I became in love with it every time, more and more, every time we went to a game."
Since the Islanders-Maple Leafs game, Sanalitro brought her sign to the Jan. 27 game against the Los Angeles Kings, the Jan. 30 game against the Minnesota Wild and the Feb. 4 game against the Seattle Kraken.
Sanalitro is staying positive, hoping her hero is out there somewhere, reading her story.
"You don't realize how many people need organs until it affects you, someone in your family or someone you know," she said. "I probably meet someone new every day who's waiting for a transplant. It's a life-changing thing for somebody. It can change my life, my family's life, everyone around me, their life will change for the better."
For more information on Sanalitro's story or interest in finding out if you are a match, contact [email protected]. To donate to her cause, visit her
GoFundMe page
.