After the surgery, Xu Ping at her husband’s bedside. (Photo/People's Daily Online)

Xu Ping was lying in bed. When she looked outside, her husband Wang Zhigang was already there waiting for her to wake up.

A few days earlier, this couple had both been in the operating theater — Xu had given her husband one of her kidneys.

Wang Zhigang was diagnosed with uremia in last April. "It was a hammer blow. My husband provided the major financial support for the family. We had no idea what to do next." Xu Ping was told that the only way to save her husband was a kidney transplant. Wang said no the first time Xu brought up the idea - he thought that Xu was too small and weak. But Xu ran some tests and was determined to help her beloved husband. She even used their 2-year-old son to try to persuade him, and 6 months later, when Wang's health was still showing no improvement, he finally consented.