Selena’s friend for life
KIDNEY GIFT SAVES STAR
FRIENDS forever.
Pop star and actress Selena Gomez said her pal Francia Raisa was literally by her side when she needed a kidney, donating the organ during transplant surgery over the summer.
Gomez, 25, said she needed the transplant to address issues that surfaced during her ongoing battle with lupus.
“I’m very aware some of my fans had noticed I was laying low for part of the summer and questioning why I wasn’t promoting my new music, which I was extremely proud of,” Gomez wrote in an Instagram post Thursday. “So I found out I needed to get a kidney transplant due to my lupus and was recovering. It was what I needed to do for my overall health.”
Gomez posted the message with a picture she took with Raisa. The two were side by side and holding hands in adjoining hospital beds.
“She gave me the ultimate gift and sacrifice by donating her kidney to me,” the former Disney Channel star wrote. “I am incredibly blessed. I love you so much sis.”
Raisa, 29, a model-turned-actress who stars in “The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” has been friends with Gomez since 2008, when they met at a charity event between ABC and Disney.
“Selena and I were in the same group and we just clicked,” Raisa told Latina magazine in 2013.
She praised her long-running friendship with the “Come & Get It” singer while wishing her a happy 24th birthday last year.
“I am obsessed with every memory we’ve built in the last 8 years and the ones we have yet to create,” Raisa wrote at the time, along with a picture of the pair.
“I am so grateful that God put you in my life when he did. If you think about the time that we met and where we were in our lives when we first hung out, his timing was perfect. It’s been so inspiring watching you grow and to grow with you.”
Raisa stepped up after Gomez went through an exhaustive search to see if any family members were a match, according to celebrity news site The Blast, which first reported the story.
Raisa’s next role will be in the upcoming “Black-ish” spinoff, “Grown-ish.”
Gomez’s decision to go public with her medical plight has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for research, according to the Lupus Research Alliance.
Gomez donated a portion of the proceeds from each ticket sold on her last tour.
The recording star revealed she suffered from lupus in a 2015 issue of Billboard. She said she underwent chemotherapy to deal with condition.
In March, she opened up to Vogue about having to check into a treatment facility because she was depressed and anxious, which was related to her struggles with the autoimmune disorder.
Gomez’s kidneys were reportedly failing months before the transplant, according to TMZ. The gossip site also reported she was hospitalized in May while in Chicago for boyfriend The Weeknd’s concert.
The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, was said to be by her side while she was in the hospital and even scheduled his shows around Gomez’s surgery, a source told People.
“It was a superserious operation and all her friends were worried,” the source told the mag.
Lupus is a chronic autoimmune condition that occurs when a person’s system attacks their own tissues and organs.
Singer Toni Braxton has also struggled with the disease.
Symptoms include joint pain, fatigue and rashes, and the disorder can harm organs and tissues.
There is no cure for lupus, but it can be managed through medication. In more serious cases, it requires a kidney transplant.
Gomez has become vocal about her battle to help others who suffer from lupus. In May, she made a donation to the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine to launch the Selena Gomez Fund for Lupus Research.