The soul singer Natalie Cole is recovering in hospital after her appeal for a kidney donor was answered by a dying fan.

The 59-year-old star talked about the queue for a life-saving organ transplant in a television chat show appearance. There are nearly 80,000 people on kidney transplant waiting lists in the US.

The daughter of Nat “King” Cole has suffered ill health since she had hepatitis C diagnosed in early 2008 — a condition she attributed to her past drug addiction — which affected her liver. She also suffered severe kidney problems and has been on a dialysis machine three times a week since last September.

She made an appearance on the Larry King Live show in March, saying that both her kidneys had failed and how she desperately needed a kidney transplant. “I’m on a very long list, which is why we are looking to donors,” she said. She was immediately overwhelmed by e-mails from viewers offering their own kidneys.

On Tuesday she went into hospital in Los Angeles when news came through that she had been given a “direct donation” by a dying 22-year-old.

OneLegacy, the charitable agency in Los Angeles that facilitated the match, said that it was rare for donors to specify who should get their kidneys and rarer still for the recipient not to be related to the donor. “As stewards of the organ donation process, OneLegacy collaborates with area hospitals to support families facing the loss of a loved one,” said Tom Mone, OneLegacy CEO.

“One such family generously agreed to donate organs to people in need of a life-saving transplant. Having heard of Ms Cole’s need for a kidney, the family asked that one of their loved one’s kidneys be transplanted to Ms Cole if they were a match.”

OneLegacy co-ordinators then determined through tests that the kidney would be a biological match for Cole and co-ordinated the recovery process.

Cole underwent a successful kidney transplant at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre and was “responding well and recuperating”, her publicist said.

Cole’s sister, Carol “Cookie” Cole, died of lung cancer on the same day that the singer received news of her transplant match.

The singer won six Grammys for her critically acclaimed 1991 album Unforgettable: With Love, a tribute to her father. She won a Grammy this year for her new album Still Unforgettable. She is now set to reschedule her summer tour dates so she can fully recover from surgery.

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