They say you can tell a lot about a person by their shoes. Pat Dardano has been shining them at his downtown Calgary stand for 32 years. Expert as he may be, he couldn’t anticipate a lifesaving gesture from a man who had frequented his business for a quarter century.

Dardano’s health took a turn for the worse in 2005. He had a seizure in 2012.

“When I woke up, they put me on dialysis for four hours at a time, three days a week,” Dardano told CTV Calgary.

Doctors said his kidneys were failing and told him he would need a transplant. His loyal stable of customers rallied around him, organizing a fundraiser to help him pay the bills. But his health continued to decline.

Randy Haatvedt could see Dardano growing weaker. He’d been thinking about how he could do more to help his community. Cutting a cheque didn’t seem like enough. So he decided to see if he could go under the knife for his friend.

“It was a time in my life when I thought I’d like to contribute more,” he said. “For a lot of people that might mean finding a charitable cause and writing a cheque, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but there are other things to do.”

Haatvedt didn’t know if he would be a match. Tests administered by the Living Donors program confirmed he was.

“Pat knows so many people that care about him, friends, coworkers, clients, family. I’m quite sure that someone would have stepped up and one of them would have been a match.”

Five years later, Dardano still remembers the moment his friend broke the news.

“He came over one day and he said, ‘Pat, I’d like to let you know that I called the Living Donors and I told them I wanted to donate one of my kidneys to you,’” Dardano recalled. “When I went home, I told my wife and she just couldn’t believe it. She just started bawling.”

The successful surgery took place on July 11, 2012.

Since then, their friendship has not been limited to the shoe shine stand.

Dardano moved to Canada from Italy in 1984. After the surgery, he brought Haatvedt back home so his extended family could meet the Canadian who stepped up to save his life.

Haatvedt says the real payoff has been watching Dardano regain his health so he can work and enjoy time with his family.

The pair plan to walk the annual 100-kilometre Kidney March next month. Another adventure they will conquer together.

“He’s my best friend,” laughed Dardano. “I have a brother from Saskatchewan now,”

With a report from CTV Calgary’s Kevin Green