He used advertising to find a donor. Now he has a new kidney and a lifelong friend.

Joshua Surovey is a new man.

After years of trying to get a new kidney, he finally has one.

For the first time in six years, his future is looking bright.

Plus, he has a lifelong friend in the onetime stranger who saw a magnet on his car and decided to give him part of herself.

Surovey received a new kidney April 5 after losing 200 pounds and searching for a matching donor for almost two years, using everything from billboards to car magnets to signs he waved alongside the road.

More: Man needing kidney tries street-sign plea

The 30-year-old man and his donor, 33-year-old Renee Bruens, are both back home in Clarksville after the transplant at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

The surgery was a success.

Their first meeting after the operation was caught on video.

"It's working, right?" Bruens asked as she was wheeled into his room.

"It's working," he told her.

"I don't know whether to cry because of pain or because I'm happy, or both," she said.

He thanked her again for giving him one of her kidneys. He can't stop thanking her.

"I can't express how grateful I am," he said.

"I'm so glad it worked," she said. "Isn't that awesome?"

More: Clarksville man goes to 'extremes' to get new kidney, fresh start

Surovey and Bruens are getting stronger every day as they recover.

"We're both doing really well, both recovering quicker than we anticipated," Surovey said Monday. "She actually went to work for a half-day today."

The surgery lasted about four hours.

During that time the kidney was out of her body for seven minutes before being placed into Surovey, he said.

"Her kidney began working immediately, with no delay," he said. "The medical team was impressed at how well, healthy (and) strong Renee's kidney was."

They were discharged on April 8.

Surovey's kidneys failed in 2012 due to complications from high blood pressure caused by obesity.

Rather than feel sorry for himself or wait for a donor, Surovey hit the gym.

After losing more than 100 pounds, he was eligible for the surgery, but finding a donor wasn't easy. He needed someone with blood type O, and no one in his family was eligible to donate.

He took his campaign to the streets in January of 2016, waving a sign that said "Kidney Donor Needed, Blood Type O, A New Kidney for Joshua."

Although several people stopped and got business cards with information on him and being a donor, he didn't find a match. He also had magnets on his car, and that's what finally caught Bruens' attention when she saw his car parked at Gold's Gym.

After some thought, the mother of two got tested, found out she was a match and agreed to be Surovey's donor.

Her gift means he won't have to spend 12 hours a day on dialysis and can have a career and family. 

"It's been long and hard," Surovey said of his journey. "Perseverance has paid off. Hard work and dedication, not only in the gym to qualify for a transplant, but also in my efforts of finding a living donor."

Kidneys from living donors are expected to last longer than those from a cadaver.

"I did everything in my power to make sure I was healthy. I also had to do everything in my power to find a donor," Surovey said. "I truly wanted to live, and I wasn't going to let anything get in the way of that. Now that I have received this blessing from Renee, the kidney transplant I desperately needed to move on, a brighter future is now within reach. I'll be able to do all the things I intended on doing now that I'm healthy."

Bruens also is trying to play matchmaker. Following her advice, Surovey trimmed two years' worth of growth off his beard to celebrate the surgery.

Reach Stephanie Ingersoll at singersoll@theleafchronicle.com or 931-245-0267 and on Twitter @StephLeaf.