VANCOUVER -- It’s been nearly a year since hot dog vendor Andrew White, better known as Skully, saw his long-time customer look alarmingly sick.

It was about this time last year when White learned his customer of three years Tim Hiscock was in need of a kidney transplant.

White told Hiscock if they were a match, he would donate his spare kidney, despite them being casual acquaintances.

Fast forward a year, and both men are preparing for surgery. On Monday, they both got tested for COVID-19 and started their two-week quarantine.

White, who's been working as a hot dog vendor for six years, said he is anxious for the day of the transplant because he knows how gruelling the last several months have been for Hiscock.

“If you talk to Tim over this last year, I would say that 90 per cent of the time, he is down, mumbling, very much in pain, discomfort. Dialysis is not a fun adventure. And it's almost over for him,” he said. “It's going to be really cool to see the change in him from being pretty much sleeping most of the day and being sick to, hopefully, living a normal life.”

They initially thought they would be able to do the operation sooner, but Hiscock needed to be up-to-date with all his vaccinations first. He got his last shot in November.

At the start of the journey, White challenged himself to abstain from eating the very product he sells: hot dogs.

He said he looks forward to enjoying some foot-long hot dogs and Kool-Aid after the surgery.

“I wasn't expecting to go a whole year without eating one of the hot dogs but it's been a cool journey, to say the least,” he said.

Hiscock’s wife started an online fundraiser to help support White, who won’t be able to go back to work for at least three months after the surgery.

The GoFundMe campaign has nearly reached its $15,000 goal.

“It's very humbling. It's very amazing. It's definitely taken a lot of pressure off me... a lot less stressful. But it's not the reason why I did it. The reason why I did it was because it just seemed right,” White said.

The kidney transplant is scheduled for Dec. 14.