Human Interest

Woman Says She Has 'No Regrets' About Donating Kidney to Ex Who Cheated on Her 7 Months Later

"I'm still proud of myself for giving someone a second chance at life," Colleen Le tells PEOPLE

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Published on February 15, 2022 03:15 PM

Colleen Le remembers going under the knife for the ultimate gift to her boyfriend: a kidney.

"I was nervous doing a big surgery like that," Le, 30, tells PEOPLE of the procedure. "The biggest surgery I ever had before that was probably getting my wisdom teeth out. I didn't know what to expect, but I knew it would change his life for the better."

Her act of generosity didn't have the same impact on their relationship. When the California woman first opened up about the ordeal via TikTok in 2020, she claimed that her ex cheated on her months after the donation in 2016.

"I trusted him completely," says Le, whose story has since gone viral several times over. "I didn't think that he would do anything to betray me like that. It really threw me off guard."

Le says that she knew her ex was suffering from chronic kidney disease at the start of their relationship in 2015. Near the end of that year, she decided to get tested to see if she would be a match for kidney donation — and in May 2016, she went through with the surgery.

Just seven months later, Le's then-boyfriend went on a trip to Las Vegas for a friend's bachelor party. When he came home, he confessed to being unfaithful.

"I had to go to work that night too, and I used to work at Disneyland — a place where dreams come true. You always have to be happy. They sent me home right after," says Le, who now works at a fire alarm installation company in Orange County, California.

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Still, that wasn't the end of their relationship.

"I don't know why I wanted to make it work, but I did," she says.

Things fell apart three months later, when they got into an argument over the phone.

"He kind of said, 'You know what, if God wants us back together, he'll bring us back together in the end,'" she says. "[He] broke it off, hung up, blocked me and stopped answering my calls and texts — just cut ties with me immediately."

Although the situation was incredibly difficult to deal with at the time, Le says she's "made peace" with it and is ready to "laugh about it now." That's why she started opening up on TikTok after downloading the app at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In one of her most recent popular posts, Le makes hilarious faces at the camera to represent her reaction "when you remember one of your kidneys is in your ex's body."

Ultimately, her attitude can be summed up best by the caption on that same video: "No regrets though."

"Saving someone's life, I could never regret that. It still feels good," says Le, who at one point "wanted to burn" the transplant certificate she received but is now glad that she hung onto it.

"I'm still proud of myself for giving someone a second chance at life," she adds.

As for what her ex is doing with that second chance, Le heard that he has a new life now.

"He's never reached out. I don't know if the story got to him," she tells PEOPLE. "I just know from a little bird that he's not in California anymore and he's married, so that's the only information I have."

Despite her followers' intrigue, the mystery man's identity will remain her secret, because Le says she knows "how crazy the internet can get."