"I donated a kidney to my fiance": after her boyfriend was diagnosed with a life-threatening disease, Liz Kelly, 28, made a selfless decision that ultimately saved his life.(Real-Life Reads: THE COSMO POST)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

I met Matt almost nine years ago, while we were both working at a clothing store in Massachusetts. I thought he was cute and was excited when he asked me out one night 'after work. He was so nervous that he dropped his car keys during our conversation. I remember thinking that we were a perfect match. But I had no idea how tree that would turn out to be.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

In 2006, after we'd been dating for six years, Matt came down with a severe ease of pneumonia. He was admitted to the hospital, where we were told that he was suffering from acute renal failure. To this day, the doctors aren't sure if the pneumonia caused the renal failure or vice versa. In any case, Matt's kidneys--which filter toxins out of the blood and control urination--weren't working, and his doctors didn't know why. He was just 28 years old.

He spent two weeks in the hospital recovering. I was so worried, but the doctors were hopeful that Matt's kidneys would bounce back on their own. They warned us that kidney donation could be a possibility, but neither of us ever thought it would come to that.

A few weeks after Matt came home from the hospital, he surprised me with a romantic home-cooked dinner. After we finished eating, he went into the kitchen to get dessert ... but instead, he came out with an engagement ring. I was ecstatic, and of course, I said yes. Matt's stint in the hospital was a wakeup call, and we didn't want to wait any longer to get married.

But it turned out that we would have to. Three months after his diagnosis, Matt's kidneys had not improved, and his doctors recommended that he begin the arduous organ-donation process, which often requires months of testing. Meanwhile, he started dialysis--to filter his blood--and was hooked up to a machine for four hours at a time, three days a week.