I suffered for years - now I have a life
Sister’s love changed everything
Someone doesn’t have to die before they can give the gift of life by donating an organ.
Pamela Townsley, 34, received a kidney from her sister Shelley, 32, in June this year.
Her younger sibling donated one of her kidneys after finding out she was a match.
Pamela, who lives in Cleland, had been unwell for several years and had to attend hospital for dialysis three days a week.
She is delighted the law is changing after waiting three years for a transplant.
The mum-of-one said: “As a donor you are saving another person’s life, and that’s amazing. I suffered for years but I’m now starting to get my life back. “The difference has been amazing. “I don’t know how to put into words what Shelley has done for me.
“If it wasn’t for her I’d still be struggling to live.”
Shelley from Coltness, said: “Our mum and dad were both matches but they didn’t have good enough kidney function for transplant.
“I was the last hope from our family but Pamela’s kidneys are actually functioning better than mine now”.
Shelley would do it again in a heartbeat: “Pamela owes me now, but I’ve not worked out what she can do for me yet,” she joked.
In the past 10 years alone, more than 500 people in Scotland have transformed the lives of others and become living kidney donors.
In Scotland there are currently over 400 people on the kidney transplant waiting list and the average wait for one from a deceased donor is three years.
Almost half of all kidney donations now come from living donors.