One good turn deserves another. They say. But this seems not to be the case of man who donated his kidney to his girlfriend, but she refused his marriage proposal when he proposed.

49-year-old Simon Louis never expected the response he got when popped the question to Mary Emmanuelle after nursing her back to health. But Mary gently rejected his proposal, though she loved him back, because her health made the future seem uncertain.

However the pair vowed to remain friends and Simon, 49, said:

“I offered her my heart but I had to settle for giving her my kidney. Whatever happens, I’ll never regret giving her the gift of life.”

Mary in her statement said

“He is my very best friend and always will be. The love between us is real. He could have died doing what he did for me.” The pair first met in a London club in the mid-1990s with Mary, then 20, thinking Simon, 28, was “a good-looking bad boy”.


They shared an odd smooch and flirted but things between them never progressed further. Simon, who had other relationships but never lost his feelings for Mary, would think of her on Valentine’s Day and buy her a rose or some chocolates.

It happened in September 2014 when Mary suddenly collapsed at home after her skin went yellow. The lady was in a coma for a fortnight after a brain haemorrhage, spent two months in intensive care and was eventually diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease.

Th only hope she had then was a transplant, but the chances of a donor being found were drastically reduced because she had very rare B negative blood. Simon visited her every day, sometimes staying the night, so he could help her get to and from the hospital.

A few weeks later Simon suggested getting tested to see if he was a match as a donor – and it turned out he was. Then both underwent surgery before helping each other back to health

Simon then decided to pop the question to Mary and asked her to marry him, but he felt disappointed as he never expected to get the response he got on that night.

Mary gave her reason for rejecting Simon's proposal and this what she said:

“I let him down gently by saying I’d have to think about it. I think I’d worry if we got married it would in some way damage our special friendship and also I don’t want to get wed until I’m fully better health-wise.”