Donnie Wahlberg Tells Touching Story of Fan Who Got Kidney Transplant After Holding Up Sign at New Kids on the Block Show

The members of boys-to-men boy band New Kids on the Block have seen a lot crazy things over the past four decades. But in a visit to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio this week, member Donnie Wahlberg was asked by host Lamar Dawson to name the craziest thing a fan has ever told him.

“Not make it a more somber thing it’s actually a really hopeful thing, but we literally just were with some fans who one of them brought a sign to a concert in the front seat and said ‘I need a kidney transplant,'” said Wahlberg, 54. “And we just happened to see the sign, took selfies with it, posted it, and another fan donated her kidney. That’s crazy in the best way. She literally did that. Went to the concert and said ‘I’m going to make this happen and save my life.’ And she did. Another Blockhead risked her life to do it.”

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Though Wahlberg did not provide any additional information about the sweet, life-saving gesture, last summer a story circulated about an Orange County, CA Blockhead teacher named Theresa Crockett who was suffering from Polycystic kidney disease. The condition causes cysts to form on a patient’s kidneys required a kidney transplant, with KABC reporting at the time that Crockett had been searching for a donor since 2021 in a state where the waiting list for such transplants can be 8-10 years long.

At an NKOTB show in May 2022, Crockett — whose mother and sister also suffered from the same hereditary kidney disease — held up a sign about her predicament that read “Please share my story! I need a kidney donor!” and Wahlberg spotted it. She said the singer collected the sign, folded it up and told her, “I got you, I got you.”

According to the OC Register, Wahlberg kept the sign on the NKOTB bus throughout the rest of the tour and later posted it on the band’s social channels. Then, on the annual NKOTB cruise, a second sign posted by Crockett got the attention of Wisconsin doctor Christina Meyer, who donated a kidney to Crockett. According to KABC, Crockett underwent the kidney transplant procedure in September and on Wednesday (March 20) she reposted the Wahlberg interview with the caption, “Everyday I’m so Thankful for this journey and to be able to live a normal life! I love you guys so much.”

NKOTB will release their first new album in 11 years, Still Kids, on May 17.

Watch Wahlberg tell the story and see Crockett’s sign below.

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