Appeal for live kidney donors as milestone is reached
MORE THAN 60 people in Yorkshire and the Humber have had kidney transplants from a stranger in the last five years.
People are being urged to consider making a life-saving donation as the 1,000th transplant involving living kidney swap donors takes this week.
The NHS runs a sharing scheme because there are people who want to make donations to family or friends only to discover they are not a good match.
It means donors can enter the scheme along with a patient and be matched to another couple so that each recipient receives a kidney from the other’s friend or family member.
Kath Tann, 44, from Huddersfield, donated a kidney after her husband Ian suddenly became ill in August 2016 with Good Pasture’s disease, an auto immune condition that attacks the kidneys and lungs.
Mr Tann had to start dialysis immediately, but Mrs Tann turned out not to be a match.
However she was listed as a donor, and early last year she gave one of her kidneys, with her husband receiving one from an anonymous donor the same day.
She said: “I wasn’t nervous about going to theatre as I knew what a difference this would make to my husband, myself and children. I was hopeful that whoever received my kidney would also have their life transformed and would be dialysis free.
“I would strongly encourage anyone to become a live donor, it’s the best decision I could have made.”
NHS Blood and Transplant said the scheme had given a huge boost to the number of kidneys available for donation.
The waiting list has fallen from 6,480 when the scheme was set up, to 4,800 people.
Pairs can be matched in either two or three-way swaps or in chains of up to three transplants.
For these chains, a volunteer known as a non-directed altruistic donor kicks off the process by donating their kidney to somebody they do not know.
David Meekin, a 49-year-old engineer from Scunthorpe, donated his kidney altruistically last year to kick off a chain of three transplants.
He said: “It cost me nothing but a little discomfort, but it allowed someone else to carry on living. It was a no brainer – someone out there needed something I had and didn’t need.”