After years of battling what some would consider a debilitating illness, Monday was Raine Angelley's first day on his dream job.

"He'll be either working on parts or trucks or whatever we need him to do," Kyle Busch said of Raine's position at Kyle Busch Motorsports.

“

Kyle called me up one day and said he wanted to help me do this, this and this.

”

-- RAINE ANGELLEY

Raine, 18, is a senior at South Iredell (N.C.) High School and has suffered from polycystic kidney disease, which causes cysts in the kidneys, since he was born. In 2006, his kidney function dropped below 20 percent, making a transplant imperative. Several donors were identified but the surgery could not be preformed until the necessary money was raised.

"It was a long time ago when I first heard about Raine." Busch said. "I saw a thing, I don't remember what it was exactly, but it was at Bruster's on Williamson [road in Mooresville], taped in the window about needing help so I called the number, talked to him -- it was his dad actually, and we became friends and have been in contact ever since."

What Busch saw was one of several posters that had been placed around Mooresville, each containing information about Raine's condition, his picture and a phone number for people to call who were interested in donating to the surgery fund.

Rayce Angelley, Raine's father, considers Busch a "life saver."

"Even though he didn't donate the organ, the financial assistance he provided and just calling Raine to check up on him kept Raine from being down in the dumps. It kept him in good spirits. That's why he's a life saver."

As a result the posters and various fundraisers held throughout the community, enough money was collected to perform the procedure and in August 2006 Raine received a kidney from his birth mother, Erica Eades. Although things now looked promising, the recovery time would be extensive. This meant that Raine would miss even more school and could face the possibility of not graduating in 2010 with the rest of his class.

Then, in 2008 came the news that a liver transplant was necessary, yet again delaying progress. It was taken from an unknown donor in late May.

"The worst part of all of this is that I have to go back and forth to Charlotte every week to sit around for four hours and wait for blood results to come back," Raine said. "That's fun."

With one semester of high school remaining -- 88 school days -- Raine must complete 360 hours in the workforce to fulfill the requirements of his Cooperative Education Program, a program that combines knowledge gained in the classroom with on-the-job experience, to become eligible to graduate.

"Kyle called me up one day and said he wanted to help me do this, this and this," Raine said.

In the short term, Busch hopes that working every day after school will provide Raine with the hours he needs to graduate. If not, Busch will offer him as much overtime as needed. But, his main goal is that Raine will learn something he can use in the future saying, "Hopefully he'll take something from it that will help him."

While Busch hopes that this experience will inspire Raine to follow his dreams and pursue a career in the motorsports industry, Busch has been inspired and forever changed by Raine and his family.

"I'm very proud of the way they have stayed strong," Busch said. "They've always held in there tough and together and hopefully the worst is behind them and they can look ahead to a bright future."

Molly Hudson is a senior at South Iredell (N.C.) High School.