MADISON, Wis. -- It's been three years since the lung from an 18-year-old boy from Michigan saved the life of a retired longshoreman in the Twin Cities. On Friday, organ recipient Vern Jackson and donor Tim Parker's mother, Lynn, met for the first time.

This weekend, more than a thousand transplant survivors and donors will compete in the 2010 National Kidney Foundation U.S. Transplant Games. For Jackson and Parker, the event isn't as much a competition as it is a demonstration of how complete strangers can end up completely changing each other's lives.

The summer after graduating high school, Troy, Mich., resident Parker died following a car crash. Parker, who had planned to attend Western Michigan University in the fall, was the vehicle's sober designated driver.

"We got a phone call at 4:22 in the morning and it's like that time is frozen in my head," said his mother, Lynn. "I can still see the clock and they said your son has been in a very bad accident and you need to come to the hospital."

Just the day before the crash, Tim and Lynn were cleaning Tim's senior year papers and came across an organ donation form. Tim tried to go online and fill out the form, but their Internet wasn't working. When Tim died the next day, Lynn knew it was his wish to donate his organs.

"He saved seven lives with the organs and enhanced over 160 other lives with tissue," she said.

Seven years earlier and a 12-hour drive away in St. Paul, Minn., Jackson had just retired when his plans suddenly changed.

"When we actually did look on the Internet and found out that pulmonary fibrosis is a a three to five year life sentence and you're gonna die, it was kind of a wake up call," said Jackson.

Jackson eventually learned he would need a new lung. Just hours after Parker's last breath, a lung transplant brought Jackson new life.

"I was probably on six to eight liters of oxygen and pretty gray in color. I just wasn't saturating, no matter how much oxygen was being pushed at me, and not really active," said Jackson. "And then the call came."

"The week after Tim died and the donation happened, that was something that sustained us," said Lynn Parker. "Even though I didn't know who was receiving organs, it was the thought that somebody on the other side was getting a phone call changing their life and allowing them to live."

Since the transplant, the Jackson and Parker families have corresponded through emails and letters, but had never spoken, until Friday afternoon.

Parker and Jackson met with hugs, tears and gifts.

"You know you have to think about your own life being at 18 and what your expectations are," said Jackson. "I just can't even imagine if it was my folks how devastating and how traumatic it is. It’s really not anything you can imagine."

Although Parker and Jackson aren’t blood relatives in the traditional sense, they both said they consider each other family.

"She’s just someone I'm hoping I'll be very close with over the years as long as I have, and to let her know every day how she's helped me," said Jackson. "Just take a day at a time and everything that I do now I try to be more aware that I'm taking Tim with me everywhere."

The Transplant Games runs through Aug. 3.