Kate Pattison hated watching her husband, Rob, hook himself up to dialysis machines every other night to manage his polycystic kidney disease. So when she found out Rob needed a kidney transplant, she didn't hesitate to offer donating one of hers.

But she was devastated to learn she couldn't, because her blood type didn't match Rob's. So Rob went on a waiting list for a donor, knowing it would likely be years before a match was found.

But thanks to a relatively new "paired exchange" program, Kate was able to help her husband after all.

Through the Canadian Blood Services' Living Donor Paired Exchange program, Kate ended up donating a kidney to a stranger she will likely never meet. That allowed Rob to receive a kidney from the loved one of another kidney patient.

It's a swap program that didn't exist in Canada before January 2009. But provinces have slowly been coming aboard, and Canadian Blood Services announced earlier this week that with the final addition of Quebec, the program is now nationwide.

There are 3,000 Canadians on a kidney transplant wait list. Rob says the program is a great way to ensure that as many people as possible can be helped.

"When I started on dialysis, I was told the wait (for a donor kidney) would be eight years. Instead, I got a kidney after two-and-a-half years as a direct result of this program. It's an amazing new program," he told CTV's Canada AM Wednesday, with his wife Kate at his side.

The couple says undergoing surgery together actually brought them closer together as a couple.

"We took a couple of months off together. We've been married 20 years this year, and it was just a wonderful gift," Rob said, smiling at his wife.

"It was actually a wonderful time. We spent a lot of time together."

Since the program began, 57 patients have received donated kidneys they might not otherwise have found. An additional 16 kidney transplants are scheduled for the weeks ahead.

The registry also relies on "non-directed donors," who are kidney donors who aren't paired with a patient, but who are willing to donate a kidney to anyone in need.

Dr. Ed Cole, chair of the National Kidney Registries Advisory Committee, calls non-directed donors the "selfless heroes" who often create "domino kidney exchanges." Their altruistic donation sets off a cascade that allows pairs to be matched up.

In one record–setting domino exchange in the U.S., three altruistic donors set off 26 surgeries that allowed 13 desperately ill kidney patients to receive new kidneys.

Cole says non-directed donors have already been responsible for 45 of the 57 transplants to date.

Rob says getting his new kidney has given him a new lease on life.

"Getting off dialysis has been such a change to our lives," he says.

"It absolutely dominates your life when you're on it. So I've gone from that, to a small handful of pills in the morning and a smaller handful of pills a night," he says.

"It's wonderful. I got my life back."