Perfect match: Teacher Gina gives up a kidney so Katie can see daughter grow up
SELFLESS Derby teacher and business owner Gina Brown has gone under the knife to donate a kidney to one of her clients.
Katie Brown – no relation – also a teacher who is now looking forward to starting a new job at a Derby special needs school, has been battling a rare form of Alport syndrome since she was just six years old and it has worsened as she got older.
The genetic condition is characterised by kidney disease, hearing loss and eye abnormalities. People with Alport syndrome experience progressive loss of kidney function – and this is what happened to Katie.
The mother-of-one’s kidney function fell to below 20 per cent two years ago, but she managed to put off dialysis until last August, when it declined further to 10 per cent. As her condition continued to deteriorate, the need for a new kidney became more urgent.
That is where Gina Brown – no relation to Katie – came in. Gina, who is a teacher at Chellaston Junior School, is also co-owner of fitness group Primal Instinct with her partner, Adam John. The business started in 2015 as an outdoor exercise enterprise
Katie joined Primal Instinct, in Burton in 2017 and, although she was not unhealthy at the time, her kidney had started to decline. She hoped changes to her lifestyle would slow it down, and it did. She had been told she would need to start dialysis within two years and she managed to delay it to five.
The 34-year-old attended a boot camp run by Adam in 2017 and through that she met Gina at a Sausage and Cider Festival.
Adam put together an exercise plan for Katie with the aim to extend her life or be transplant-ready.
Fast forward to June this year and Katie has just undergone a kidney transplant with Gina as the donor.
Katie, who lives in Tutbury, said: “At first I didn’t know she had put herself forward. She rang me and said she had tested as a perfect match. I think I cried instantly. I just felt a bit of hope because people who had gone to be tested were unable to do it.
“I thought I’d reached the end of the line and I was just waiting for that phone call. But Gina was the light at the end of the tunnel and I was so grateful and I still am so grateful.
“It’s just surreal and I still call it her kidney. She keeps saying it’s mine now. We’re bonded for life. I don’t know how to pay her back for giving me an organ but I’m eternally grateful to her.
“I still have Alport. One of the biggest misconceptions is that it’s a cure but it’s a treatment. I’m on kidney anti-rejection drugs for the rest of my life. My immune system will be trying to overpower it as it is a foreign body. I will get another 15 to 20 years out of this kidney, which is incredible.
“This allows me to watch my daughter grow up and there were points in the last year that I didn’t think that was going to happen. I get another 20 years of her and I will live every day as if it was my last. “I feel so much better already and I just want to enjoy it. Not everyone gets a chance of having a living donor. If it wasn’t for Gina, I could have been waiting three to five years for a donor. “When I woke up I just burst into tears and they asked if I wanted my husband and I asked for Gina. They allowed me to ring her. It’s a long process and lots of things can go wrong. It’s mentally draining. “From a kidney perspective, I feel amazing, it was almost instant. I’m still recovering and waiting for my body to catch up now. I’m taking my time. I’ve been so poorly for such a long time but I’m quite resilient and just get on with it.
“If someone told me that day when I met Gina at the Sausage and Cider Festival that she would be giving me a kidney I would have laughed at them. It’s weird how things pan out. When we have both fully recovered we have said we’re going to go for a meal and July 28 will now be known as National Gina Day and we will try to do something for it every year.”
Katie is now looking forward to starting a new job at a Derby special needs school in September after finishing at Richard Wakefield School in Tutbury.
Katie lost her hearing when she was six and had to wear glasses from her early 20s because of the eye abnormalities. Her kidney function fell to below 20 per cent two years ago but she managed to put off dialysis until last August when it declined further to 10 per cent. She started on dialysis two days after being rushed into hospital.
Gina said: “Last year she started to rapidly decline and was put on dialysis. It went from needing a new kidney one day to needing one now. I asked for the number and information. The pros massively outweighed the cons as it meant more time with her daughter and family.
“Initially, I didn’t tell her that I had gone for them as I wanted to make sure that I at least had the right blood type. It was a relief when she knew that I was going for the tests and it was not bad news. I knew a couple of people had gone for the tests but it couldn’t go ahead.
“I was nervous they were going to tell me I had some terminal illness that I would not recover from as they test everything. It wasn’t scary, it wasn’t until the day before that I was nervous about it.”
The two women said they had to jump through many hurdles to get to the surgery day, including independent psychological analysis to make sure they were not being forced into it. The surgery even had to be put back twice – the first due to Covid and then when Gina suffered a family bereavement.
The surgery took place at Nottingham City Hospital on June 28, with Gina going in first and then Katie. Three days later, Gina was at home and being cared for by her family.
Gina said: “I feel good. Strangely the pain was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be or for as long. I’m just tired now as my body is getting used to having one kidney. If I empty the washing machine that is it for the day. I feel tired.
“There shouldn’t be any limitations to my everyday life and health. It will take three to six months to recover and feel less lethargic. I can’t do any exercise for six weeks.
“It feels really odd. I’ve had so many thank-you cards and flowers from Katie’s friends and family but it just felt like the right thing to do. It felt like something I had to do.
“Knowing she has got longer with her daughter means everything, seeing her finish school, grow up and become an adult.”
Partner Adam has been running the house and caring for their three children while Gina has been recovering.
He said it was when Katie did his transformation programme in the summer of 2017 that he found out about her condition that would eventually shut down her vital organs. They worked together for a long time to reduce her visceral fat level (fat that is wrapped around the organs), as too much can cause things like heart attacks.
He said: “The aim was to extend her life or be transplant-ready. Everything was going really well and then lockdown happened and she started to deteriorate really fast.
“It’s amazing what Gina has done. I was incredibly worried and nervous when she went in but I’m incredibly proud of her. She is one of those people where there is no changing her mind. It was a proud moment for both of them. I had taken Katie as far as I could, I couldn’t do any more but Gina took it to the next level.”
I’ve had so many thankyou cards from Katie’s friends and family, but it just felt like the right thing to do. Gina Brown