Lifelong Cubs fans Denise Vazquez and Cathy Weadley met outside Sloan Park in 2022.

At the time, neither had a clue of how important they would become to each other.

Weadley, who works as a security associate at Wrigley Field, first spotted Vazquez decked out in Cubs gear at a spring training game that year.

“She was trying to get autographs from players,” Weadley said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, here’s a harder Cub fan than I am, I just have to help this woman get autographs.'”

Weadley invited Vazquez to a tent for Club 400, a fan-run nonprofit organization allowing Cubs fans to help fellow fans in need.

“I introduced her to people, and that was in the ’22 season,” Weadley said. “And in the ’24 season, that’s when I learned she needed a kidney.”

In her mind, Vazquez had one specific request for her potential donor.

“When I was told I had a donor, all I kept thinking was, ‘I hope it’s a Cubs fan, and we can knock this out before spring training,” Vazquez said.

Vazquez indeed had a donor who was a Cubs fan, but it also was someone who had become a dear friend to her.

“Club 400 is all about Cubs fans helping Cubs fans,” Weadley said. “I saw this as a perfect opportunity to help Denise.”

Before Weadley got the call that she was a match, she was helping Vazquez and her family get the word out to find donors.

“When they called me, I was elated,” Weadley said.

On Jan. 7, 2025, Weadley gave Vazquez her kidney at Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix. Now, the two women are connected to each other forever — and it is all because their love for the Cubs brought them together.

“We’re not just friends,” Vazquez said. “We’re family.”

For more information about how you can help save somebody’s life through organ donation, visit donatelife.net

Watch the full feature produced by Marquee Sports Network’s Scott Changnon here: