For anyone, being handicapped by a illness can really make one worry about, both, career and life. Selena Gomez could speak from experience with that after she learned that she was infected with lupus, a diagnosis she made public in 2015. Having a disease of such gravity, compounded with bouts of anxiety and depression, it was understandable that Gomez would take some time off from work to sort herself out. One major step in that direction was for her to get a transplant after her condition led to the failure of one of her kidneys. She needed a donor, and a good friend of Selena was quite happy to oblige.

Donor BFF

Following a brief period with little news, Selena Gomez surprised the public by announcing that she was in the middle of recovering from her kidney transplant, which took place two months ago. The singer-actress revealed that her good friend and fellow actress, Francia Raisa, had donated one of her own kidneys for the operation. Gomez related all this in a post on Instagram that showed both her and Raisa in hospital beds next to each other and holding hands.

“It was what I needed to do for my overall health,” Selena remarked on the medical procedure she had to go through in response to her long-term struggle with lupus. While she had hoped to be able to tell more about her story towards getting the transplant, for the moment Gomez is content to finish her recuperation while thanking her doctors and Raisa for donating one of her kidneys.

"She gave me the ultimate gift and sacrifice by donating her kidney to me," Selena, 25, remarked of her friend, the 29-year-old star of “The Secret Life of the American Teenager." "I am incredibly blessed. I love you so much sis."

Gift and sacrifice

Selena Gomez’s condition of lupus, or “systemic lupus erythematosus,” is an autoimmune disease that fluctuates between times with no symptoms and “flares” wherein the body’s immune system attacks healthy tissue.

One common consequence of lupus is kidney failure, such as what the actress needed to address with chemotherapy and the transplant from a healthy donor. By Thursday, September 14, numerous fans of Gomez have left grateful and appreciative comments on Raisa’s Instagram account.

While Selena’s health condition has been playing out discretely, away from the public eye, she still manages to find herself in the news sometimes.

The most prominent development recently was the dating relationship between her and Canadian singer-songwriter The Weeknd, which has carried on even during times when she must drop out of sight for her treatments.