The one precious gift men are not willing to give

Is anyone in the least bit surprised that two-thirds of living kidney donors are women? Having witnessed how territorial my husband gets over space in the boot of the car when we’re packing to go away for a weekend, I can’t imagine him ever voluntarily relinquishing an organ.

It’s not selfishness (although granted, it looks like it), more a conviction about the natural order of things; just as the boot must not be filled with just-in-case shoes, so his kidneys are his.

He’s far from alone. A study of donation rates show that 36 per cent of women who are a suitable match go on to donate a kidney to their

‘My husband said that he would happily give me his kidney... when he’s dead’

husband, yet when the situation is reversed, only 6.5 per cent of men give a kidney to their wives.

That means 93.5 per cent would rather condemn her to a life on dialysis than go under the surgeon’s knife. How’s that for a ringing endorsement of marriage?

Oh! Stop the press. I’ve just phoned my husband. He magnanimously said he would happily give me, or anyone else, his kidney ... when he’s dead. I explained it would be a living donation.

After hardly much of a pause at all, he has confirmed he would still be willing to give it to me or the children or his side of the family, but not to my side of the family, because I have too many sisters.

I’m not sure kidney donation is a numbers game – you give one and keep one and that’s it – but I was quite touched all the same.

Having said that, I do hope that I’ll never have to put him to the test.