A Toronto mother has given the gift of life for a second time to her son after donating her kidney to the boy.

Last week, Catharine Dunn donated one of her kidneys to her six-year-old son Charlie, whose kidneys had nearly stopped functioning due to chronic disease.

Charlie was discharged from hospital on Friday, just in time to wish his mom a happy Mother’s Day.

“It’s the greatest gift for Mother's Day, honestly," Dunn told CTV News.

She said the decision to donate one of her kidneys to her son was a no-brainer.

"Any parent would want to do this for their child," she said. “If I could contribute…in any way I was happy to do it."

Before going under the knife at Toronto’s SickKids Hospital, Charlie’s sense of taste was severely hampered--even water tasted funny--but the operation went so well, his appetite returned within hours.

Charlie’s father Matt Dunn, a TSN producer, posted a video on Twitter of his son enjoying a doughnut just 22 hours after surgery.

Through the whole process, Matt Dunn cheered on his wife and son as they prepped for surgery.

"As much as I was terrified on the inside I just kept my focus on what we could do and also keeping everyone positive," he said.

"It's a beautiful gift if you think about it,” said Dr. Armando Lorenzo, the pediatric urologist who performed the operation. “It's one of the few surgeries that we do where the donor gets no physiological benefit. It's altruistic."

With a report from CTV Toronto’s Peter Akman