Selena Gomez Forever Appreciative to Francia Raisa as She Raises Awareness on World Kidney Day
Selena Gomez is "forever grateful" as her best friend, Francia Raisa, raised awareness for World Kidney Day on Twitter.
Francia Raisa took to Twitter to share her story of being a kidney donor to raise awareness for World Kidney Day. Selena Gomez shared her appreciation for Raisa.
In 2017, Gomez's best friend donated her kidney to the singer to help her with her lupus condition. Lupus is an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks healthy organs and cells.
Selena Gomez and Francia Raisa pictured at the Billboard Women In Music 2017, California. | Photo: Getty Images
The condition can lead to different organs failing. Raisa donated her kidney to Gomez to help better her condition. Gomez shared an Instagram post about the surgery in 2017.
At the time, Gomez shared a photo of the two best friends in their hospital gowns lying in bed next to each other. In the caption of the post, she discussed the situation and wrote:
"She gave me the ultimate gift and sacrifice by donating her kidney to me. I am incredibly blessed. I love you so much sis."
Raisa has not shared much about her perspective of being a donor until now. On March 11, she shared a 4-tweet-long thread to raise awareness for World Kidney Day.
She shared that she finally felt confident and comfortable speaking about her own experience. She explained that the population is affected by various forms of kidney disease.
Raisa was upset with Gomez for not taking her recovery seriously as she was seen drinking alcohol.
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I’ve kept my kidney donation process pretty private. However, I think I’ve gotten to a point in my life where I feel comfortable and confident in speaking about my experience, and using my platform to raise awareness... 1/4 pic.twitter.com/kFoJAjgAbS
— Francia Raisa (@franciaraisa) March 11, 2021
She added that although she had not experienced kidney disease, she had firsthand experience of the impacts and wanted to educate others about the day.
Raisa shared a link to a website about World Kidney Day and wrote that it was a great resource for learning about kidney disease. Gomez retweeted her bestie's post and wrote:
"Thank you for blessing me. I am forever grateful to you."
"Francia should get this award...she saved my life." - Selena Gomez
— billboard (@billboard) December 1, 2017
Watch her full #womeninmusic acceptance speech: https://t.co/isSIXf6NLa pic.twitter.com/6Tv2z6jJai
The friends have gone through their ups and downs. Shortly after the surgery, Raisa was upset with Gomez for not taking her recovery seriously as she was seen drinking alcohol.
Despite this, it seems they were able to patch things up and remain friends. The pair even shares matching tattoos of the date of their kidney surgery. Gomez publically thanked her at Billboard's Women in Music event.
Thank you for blessing me. I am forever grateful to you. https://t.co/qW5Xm7GJpY
— Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) March 12, 2021
In 2015, Gomez had started undergoing chemotherapy for Lupus. In 2016, she shared with Billboard that she went public with her diagnosis because she wanted to advocate for lupus.
Fans knew something was up in 2017 when the singer had not been seen out and was not posting on social media. Gomez then shared that she had the life-changing surgery with help from Raisa.
