Only one thing could possibly trump the old saying "Friends don’t let friends drive drunk."

And that would be, "Friends don’t let friends die."

That is what brought Darrah Berck, formerly Darrah Dollens, of Thompson back together with her childhood friend, Lexa Brooks of Sturgeon.

The pair met in 2002 at the Cedarcrest Baptist Church Camp outside of Santa Fe, Mo. The friendship was forged once a week every summer during church camp as they passed through their middle school years.

"We saw each other at sporting events like the Centralia Tournament, and just kept in touch like that," said Brooks who was a three-sport athlete at Sturgeon High School as well as a forward for the Culver Stockton College Wildcats girls’ basketball team.

"She’s from Sturgeon, we played ball against each other a lot," said Berck.

Then in March 2008, while at Culver-Stockton, Lexa was diagnosed with Wegener’s Granulomatosis, a disease that wrecks havoc with the autoimmune system. That April she was hospitalized for three-weeks at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.

Her mother, Jorene, retired from the Columbia Public School District to help manage Lexa’s care. That included driving her to physician and physical therapy appointments as well as blood drawings.

Meanwhile Berck had graduated from Centralia High School, earned a curator’s scholarship and applied it to the pre-med program at the University of Missouri. She had also won a Conley scholarship, which provided for admission to medical school.

Lexa had been regularly posting about her situation on Facebook, a social networking site on the Internet.

"We stayed in touch on Facebook," said Brooks. "I posted a few things on there about needing a donor."

By then the disease had ravaged her kidneys, reducing them to only 15 percent of their normal functioning capacity. Lexa needed a donor kidney.

"My uncle was going to do it but that fell through," said Brooks. Her uncle, John Burks, was not able to pass all the medical tests.

Her mother tried, but she developed diabetes. Then Brooks’ father, Stan, and her big brother, Dane, stepped up, but they had the wrong blood type.

As this was happening, Brooks life was changing.

She had moved home and switched to Central Methodist College to be closer to her physician. She also began a renal diet. That meant she was restricted to low-sodium, low calcium, low phosphorus and no whole grains foods, "A whole lot of nothing," said Brooks.

By September 2009, her kidney function deteriorated to the point that she had to begin taking dialysis treatments. First, hemodialysis at a clinic in Columbia where she spent three hours every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday on a machine. Then she switched to peritoneal dialysis, which she could undergo every night at home as she slept.

That gave her the freedom during the day for her college classes.

Berck had been tracking Brooks’ postings on Facebook. "She just kept following my updates. She took the tests and when she passed she told me about it," said Brooks. "She felt it was meant to be."

"I knew she had been looking for a while," said Berck who explained why she wanted to help her friend.

"My grandfather Henry," she said of her maternal grandfather Bill Henry. "If it weren’t for the girl that donated her heart, I would have never gotten to know him. Donating an organ is really special and helps a lot of people in a lot of ways."

Becoming a living kidney donor was not a short or simple process, she said. She started it in October 2009.

A trio of blood tests, visits and examinations at Boone Hospital and then Barnes Jewish Hospital, CT scans, X-rays, detailed examinations of her medical history as well as those of her parents, Danny and Dena Dollens followed.

In February 2010, she was finally approved to donate a kidney to Lexa.

She checked into the hospital Monday, May 24, for pre-op and was released Thursday, May 27.

The operation took place at Barnes Jewish Hospital Tuesday, May 25.

"We did it all in one day in conjoining rooms," said Brooks.

A little more than a week later Berck was flying to North Carolina to spend the summer with her husband Justin Berck, a U.S. Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

"The doctor told me to take it take it easy for six weeks," said Berck when asked if there were long-term consequences of the donation. "Then I can start going back to the gym again, it wont affect me in any way."

The operation appears to be a success.

Brooks’ road to recovery is pretty much in her own hands she said.

That road will be paved with a life long regimen of anti-rejection drugs, anti-var and anti-fungal drugs.

It also includes finishing her college degree. Brooks lacks one year of coursework and one semester of student teaching for her bachelor’s degree in elementary education.

"It’s pretty much up to me, I am looking forward to doing things again, eating what other people eat and doing recreational sports... I want to get out and have fun again!"

"I have my first followup this Wednesday," Brooks said. "After that, I’ll know if I am good to go."