Noel Keesling and Joe Clement

Photograph by Dan McMackin — UPS
  • Affiliation
    UPS
  • Title
    Delivery Drivers
  • Age
    56 and 53
  • Location
    Clearwater, Florida

Location: Clearwater, Fla.

 

UPS (No. 47) delivery drivers Joe Clement and Noel Keesling have been friends for 25 years. So, when Keesling—a former Marine and triathlete—became sick and needed a new kidney, Clement knew he needed to see if he was a match. “To see him every day with his head down like that, well, it wasn’t a big deal.” The day after he got his results, Clement approached Keesling and told him the good news. “What’d you do that for?” his friend asked, shocked. The transplant occurred April 1, 2015, and the two men recovered together, watching reruns of Friends. For Keesling, the kidney offers a new lease on life. “I was so over doing dialysis. Once I got a new kidney, I felt great,” he says. “I feel like I could run a marathon.”