A Calgary father was pleased to learn he was the ideal candidate to help his father out with a life-saving operation but he now needs help himself after the surgery left him facing a life threatening situation of his own.

In 2012, Darrian Love was living his life with his new wife, Amy, in Grande Prairie working in construction and going to school when he found out his father was diagnosed with cancer.

“He had a pretty advanced cancer and I guess it was just about to spread so he was on the transplant list for a little while,” said Love. “I was devastated, I mean my dad’s my hero and he’s sacrificed so much for my family.”

Love found out that he could do something about his dad’s situation and so he went with his siblings for testing to see if he could donate a portion of his own liver.

“And it made me feel like I was born to do it,” said Love. “They told me I would donate about 68 percent of my liver, a couple of pounds. But the liver is a really neat organ, it can grow so I donated my right lobe and an artery and a vein and a bile duct that they were able to use for him.”

The surgery was a success and Love says he was recovering fairly quickly.

“I thought I was going to be perfectly fine for the rest of my life but I guess as things progressed, I started having these bouts of abdominal pain.

Those bouts of pain lasted several months and doctors were stumped by what was causing it.

“It happened after we moved here to Calgary which was in August of the same year, so it happened very quickly and I was back in school already in September of that year and we went to Rockyview Hospital for these bouts of abdominal pain.”

He says doctors kept sending him home until they finally found out that part of his bowel was caught in a hole in his diaphragm.

“After we were adamant about getting a CT scan, we got one and that’s when they saw the hernia,” said Love.

The hernia was small but it caused part of his bowel to die and he was suddenly faced with his own life threatening emergency.

“They kept on telling Amy, like you need to spend time with your husband, this is extremely serious,” said Love.

Love was in school, working full-time and was the sole bread winner for the family when the complications occurred.

“I’m a big family guy and to have this thrown into the mix, I was not expecting it at all, I’m at the very end of my degree so I was looking for work. I had a couple of interviews lined up in Grande Prairie and here and it all disappeared with this whole surgery.”

He was forced to drop out of school and can't work while he recovers so his sister started a campaign to help raise funds for his family’s future.

 “I’m young and I’m recovering quickly and I’m very positive about it like this is life and it’s taught me a lot,” said Love. “It’s about the journey, it’s not about the end.”

Love’s dad is cancer free now and is also recovering.

To help out and make a donation to the Love for the Love’s campaign click HERE.

(With files from Brad McLeod)