A woman from Illinois recently said “I do” to the Irish American stranger who donated part of his liver to save her life two years ago.

In 2014, Heather Krueger was so ill with stage 4 liver disease that doctors predicted she would have just months to live without a vital transplant.

Chris Dempsey worked with Heather’s cousin as an enforcement officer and after he heard her story, decided to get tested to see if he was a potential donor match, the Irish Independent reports.

And then the former Marine, who had never met Heather, decided to donate part of his liver to save her life.

Before the surgery, the pair met over lunch and that was when they realized their connection was more than just a blood type match.

“When I heard about her situation, I just put myself in that situation, thinking if this was one of my family members or me, I would want somebody to help me out,” Chris told Today.com.

"My mom was kind of nervous at first for me. Some people didn’t understand why I would do this for a stranger, but as time went on, people changed their tune and thought it was a cool thing I was doing."

Heather and Chris developed a relationship after the surgery and became engaged last December. They were married in Illinois in October.

Heather said: "He had told me at the beginning of everything, ’You owe me absolutely nothing for this. We can go our separate ways if that’s what you want’.

"It was kind of like, we do have this special bond, but is this just because I’m sick that I’m feeling this way? You had to kind of separate that, but after the surgery, I realized it went beyond that."