My Kidneyversary - A Living Donation

Today is a very special day!! Twelve months ago, on the morning of 14th July 2021, I was lying on an operating table at Guy’s Hospital, London, having my left kidney removed so my sister Liz could have one. 

The journey to get to that day was a long and turbulent one but we held on in hope after every knock back knowing it would all happen in the fullness of it’s own time. 

To give a very brief background to our story, Liz was born with Sickle Cell Disease. An inherited blood disorder that results in an abnormality in the oxygen carrying protein haemoglobin found in red blood cells. The long term effect of this disease had caused her kidneys to fail and she needed a transplant to improve her quality of life. By the time we both arrived at the hospital in July 2021, Liz had been on dialysis for close on 5 years!

I did not think twice about volunteering to donate my own kidney as soon as I found out she needed one but there were a number of stumbling blocks we would encounter before we finally entered the operating theatre. The kidney clinic had been able to determine very early on that we were blood and tissue matched, not surprisingly as we are siblings but they did warn us be brace ourselves… sometimes you find out things…

Liz, however had had so many blood transfusions during the course of her illness she had antibodies and we were not matched, A direct transplant would lessen the chances of the kidney’s survival! Thankfully there were other options and we chose to join the pairing scheme. What this means basically is, they match transplant candidates with suitable living donors. So in a nutshell, all the pairing candidates are pooled and the best kidney match is found. So my kidney went to someone else so Liz could receive a better matched kidney.

The pairing scheme is run four times a year. We found a match quite quickly until further on down the line, one of the pairs pulled out and our particular chain collapsed. In the ensuing rounds we found another match and then shortly before the op, Liz was found to have a heart condition which spooked her cardiologist and the anaesthetist. The operation was called off! Then ofcourse covid struck and everything was put on hold!

Every cloud has a silver lining, during our enforced year out due to covid, Liz’s heart miraculously fixed itself and we were back on… third time luckily!

It’s taken a year for me to share this outside of close friends and family mostly because there can be complications after this sort of surgery and I wanted to tell the uncomplicated story after all the kinks had been ironed out. 

Secondly, my close family and friends hailed me as some kind of hero and much as I appreciated their sentiments, I was extremely uncomfortable with this. I didn’t do it for praise, I honestly didn’t, and I don’t even believe I was that brave. I just did it because it really needed to be done and I wanted to do it so my sister could have a better quality of life. I did it because I have lived with sickle cell sufferers all my life and for some, all their lives. My brothers Gabriel (36) and David (61) both lost their lives to complications of this awful blood disorder. I just wanted to help and I knew I could help!

The real reason for sharing this though is, stories like this need to be told to potential living donors, especially  to those amongst the BAME (Black and Minority Ethnics) community. The greatest need for living kidneys is amongst this group and the least number of contributions sadly come from this group. The waiting list for a kidney amongst the BAME community is much much longer than it needs to be.

Am I proud of myself? Yes! Hugely so, and very thankful that I was able to do this. It has made a lot of difference to Liz’s life and sometime during the August bank holiday, when she comes to visit me in the Lake District, I’d like us to go up to the Honister Pass and hold our hands up high in victorious praise and thanksgiving. That is my dream!

Do please please think about it, and if you are in a position to do something about it… Go For It!! 

If you have a similar story to share, please do so in the comments below… and thank you in advance. You should be very proud of yourself. 

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