Vanessa: Southbank cuts ‘mad’
“Serious as a new kidney.” She phoned Jeff and said: “Are you ready for a piece of me?”
He still thought she was joking, but in March the pair were wheeled into surgery at the University of Florida Health Shands Hospital, bringing their unique friendship closer than ever. After a series of X-rays, CT scans and a battery of blood tests Terri was confirmed as a match for Granger, and declared fit for donation. “This one is truly unique, where the spouse of a deceased donor 16 years later would donate their own organs,” says the University’s College of Medicine chief transplant surgeon Dr Kenneth Andreoni. “I don’t know if this has happened anywhere else.”
Payton, when asked what would happen if his mother one day needed a new kidney in an emergency, replied without hesitation:
“She can have mine.” Terri and Jeff agree they are friends for life, united by a rare bond. “We aren’t organ donor and transplant recipient,” Terri says. “Through this connection, we’ve become family.”
Together, they hope that their entwined fates inspire others to consider organ donation, which could save the lives of one of the 110,000 Americans awaiting a donor.
In Britain 2,973 are awaiting a transplant organ, according to the latest NHS figures. In the most recent annual figures for the 12 months ending in March, the NHS transplanted a total of 4,733 organs harvested from 1,584 deceased donors and 970 living donors.
Patients who receive organs from living donors generally have better outcomes, their transplants on average lasting twice as long, with fewer rejections or hospitalisations.
ACTRESS Vanessa Redgrave said plans to cut 365 jobs at the Southbank Centre in London are “absolute madness”.
The UK’S largest arts organisation warned it is at risk of closing until at least April 2021 because of financial pressures.
Last month it began a consultation for a possible 365 redundancies from its 577-strong workforce, said the Public and Commercial Services Union.
Vanessa, 83, yesterday joined with dozens of protesters outside the Southbank.
She said: “There must be no more redundancies inside, upstairs, downstairs, left bank, right bank.
“It is absolute madness, artistically speaking, and absolute madness economically speaking.”