ONEONTA, N.Y. — Amy Schlee was watching the NBC show “American Ninja Warrior” in July 2016 when she decided to donate one of her kidneys to someone she’d never met before.

“It’s something I’d researched doing in the past,” Schlee said in a phone interview with the Oneonta, New York Daily Star on Tuesday.

“American Ninja Warrior” is an athletic game show in which contestants tackle obstacle courses that feature structures with forbidding names such as “the salmon ladder” and “the warped wall.”

On the episode that Schlee saw, however, a construction worker from North Carolina named Kenny Niemitalo made a plea on behalf of his baby daughter Hazel, who had been diagnosed with a congenital disease requiring a kidney transplant.

“How do I get the world saying, ‘this girl needs a transplant?'” Niemitalo said during the show.

“They had been unable to find a match,” Schlee said. “They were desperately seeking a new kidney donor.”

Schlee said that she actually happened on the segment at the tail end of the show, and began pursuing donation soon after that.

“It was one of those funny timing things,” she said.

When asked about why she chose to act, Schlee focused on what Hazel Niemitalo had been already been through.

“She spent the first nine months of her life in the hospital,” Schlee said.

The initial blood work for donation compatibility was done by the Bassett Healthcare Network, Schlee said.

“I was fortunate in that I’m O-positive,” she said, referring to her compatible blood type.

Schlee flew to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where the transplant operation took place at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center on Dec. 20, 2016.

Her transportation to Winston-Salem was provided by an organization called Angel Flight, which Schlee described as “wonderful people who donate their time and planes and money.”

Kenny Niemitalo had qualified for the next round of competition in San Antonio, an episode which aired on Monday night. Schlee could be seen in the audience, alongside Hazel and the girl’s mother, Maria. Schlee said that when she learned that Hazel was going to be there to see her father compete, she flew to San Antonio for the taping at her own expense.

Niemitalo finished just out of the top 15 finalists on Monday’s episode, conquering an obstacle referred to as “the pipe fitter” before finally falling prey to a trampoline-based contraption called “the hourglass drop.”

Schlee said that she recently ran a half marathon herself, in part to demonstrate what people can accomplish even after organ donation.

“I’m doing things I’ve never done before and I feel great,” she said.

Schlee has remained in touch with Kenny Niemitalo, she said. Niemitalo told her that Hazel, now two years old and doing well, was watching the show Monday too, but didn’t seem to recognize herself on television. Schlee said she is hoping that the family will come and visit her in the fall.

Schlee also said that she has wrestled with the question of whether to be public about her kidney donation.

“Do I do it and keep it quiet?” Schlee remembered thinking when considering the operation.

She eventually decided to speak more openly about her act, however, noting that there is “such a huge need” for organ donation. She cited a co-worker who had recently given a kidney to her nephew, and said that by talking about her experience, she is “hoping we can inspire a few more people.”

Benedict writes for the Oneonta, New York Daily Star.