A man's generous act to help a friend led to a life-saving discovery of his own.

Robb Layne volunteered as a living organ donor to help Doris Pittell, who, at 79 years old, was diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease.

"I was in very good health except for the kidneys, and I was in great shape, and I was a good candidate for kidney transplant," Pittell said. "But I needed a living donor."

While Layne wasn't a perfect genetic match, he planned to donate through a voucher program that would prioritize Pittell through the National Kidney Registry.

Layne said he was adopted at birth, leaving his medical history uncertain.

"I tried to do the DNA testing," he said. "I tried to find family that I wasn't necessarily connected with and I couldn't."

After months of testing, Layne needed to fulfill one last requirement: a colonoscopy. It was then that he received the shocking news that he had stage-one colon cancer and immediately thought of his family and future.

"I have a son. I have a husband. I have a life. I have things that I want to do, I'm not done," Layne said about receiving the diagnosis at just 45 years old and with no symptoms.

"I was running and swimming and being active," Layne said. "And I'm totally fine and then, wham, I come back and I'm like, 'Wait, actually, you're not fine.'"

Doctors ended up removing one foot of Layne's colon. He didn't need chemo or radiation.

"I knew this year I was gonna have surgery. I thought it was gonna be to save somebody else's life. I didn't realize it was gonna be to save my own," Layne said.

Desire to help others

Layne said his desire to be a living organ donor goes back to when he was a teenager and his father received a liver transplant.

"Growing up, I had to reconcile the fact that in order for my dad to live, somebody else had to die," he said.

Layne has eight more years with his dad thanks to the transplant.

"It was his heart, his generosity, and his love of his father and the … memory of what his father went through that wanted him to do this for me," Pittell said. "Therefore, he saved his own life. I just am a byproduct."

"I'm not done living"

As he heals, Layne said he has a "sense of increased purpose."

"I don't want to let life happen to me. I want to make life happen," he said. "I want to leave behind what other people think of me and just live for myself."

Layne said he needed something to work toward, so he signed up to swim from Manhattan to the Statue of Liberty.

"I needed something not to just be healthy for, I needed something to work for because that is living. That's not just surviving," he said.

But even in his own fight, Layne thought about his friend.

"One of the hardest conversations I had to have was telling my friend Doris that I was no longer a viable candidate. As we sit here today, she is still in need of a voucher or kidney or a donor," Layne said.

Pittell, now 81, is on peritoneal dialysis – which she does at home each night as she sleeps, despite doubts from her doctor.

"I go to work every day, five days a week. I take care of a house. I live a life and I want to continue to live a life," she said. "When I told him that he said, 'I just don't think you're a candidate for peritoneal dialysis' … I said, 'Watch me.'"

Layne is cancer-free and using his experience to promote colon cancer screenings and living organ donation.

"I'm not done living and laughing and crying and reading and, you know, doing," he said. "[I'm] just really being very grateful for … for that moment."