Give a Kidney - one's enough
Welcome to the Give a Kidney website
Give a Kidney – One’s Enough is a charity that aims to raise awareness of altruistic living kidney donation.
Altruistic donation is the giving of a kidney, from a living person, to a stranger who has kidney failure.
We also aim to publicise why more living kidney donors are needed and to support people who are considering this type of donation.
Patients with kidney failure have the option of dialysis or transplantation when both their kidneys fail. A kidney transplant can provide patients with freedom from regular dialysis, a better quality of life and longer life expectancy. Unfortunately, very few patients have someone who can give them a kidney, and on average most patients have to wait on dialysis for two to three years before a kidney becomes available on the national deceased donor transplant waiting list.
Although the UK performs more than 2500 kidney transplantations a year, there are over 7000 people waiting for a kidney transplant, of whom 300 die each year.
Despite the shortage of donors, we know that many people would be willing to donate a kidney if they knew how to do so.
Our aim is to raise awareness of kidney donation and support people through the giving process.
Personal Stories
“Pity I can’t do it again”
Dr Chris Burns-Cox, consultant physician, Gloucestershire, and member of the steering committee of Give a Kidney – One’s Enough, donated a kidney in 2010 at the age of 72.
I had been a doctor for 50 years and still felt a pity for the suffering of mankind – but also was aware how enormously fortunate I had been in my own good health.
These were good reasons for looking around for what else I could do to be of use and ease a little suffering. Giving a kidney to a stranger anonymously had been discussed in the newspapers, so I rang the local transplant unit to find out more.
“My heart told me to do it”
Di Franks, aged 58, from west Berkshire, is an altruistic kidney donor who has written a blog about donating her kidney. You can read it at www.livingkidneydonation.co.uk
In 2010 I donated a kidney to someone I did not know. A friend of mine in the United States donated one early in 2006, and that was the first I heard that you could. Immediately my heart just told me this was something I really wanted to do. Giving a small part of me to someone else would make little difference in my life but a huge difference in someone else’s – it was an easy decision for me to make.
“The risks are less than those of mountaineering or microlight flying”
Paul van den Bosch, GP, Surrey, and member of the steering committee of Give a Kidney – One’s Enough, gave a kidney in 2008, at the age of 53
I still find it difficult to say exactly why or when I decided to look at the possibility of donating a kidney. Over the years as a GP I have come across many people with kidney disease, but perhaps the turning point came when I asked a man about my own age about the impact that having a transplant had made. “It’s like winning the lottery,” he said, and then hesitated a moment before adding, “No, better than that, because no amount of money could have made me feel well again.”
“The experience has changed my outlook on life”
Jenny Dale, aged 46, a crime scene investigator from Dorset, gave a kidney in 2011
I had never had any connection with anyone with kidney failure or anything to do with organ transplants. I happened to see a news article about a three-way paired kidney donation, and the article mentioned altruistic kidney donation. At this stage I didn’t even know what altruistic kidney donation meant. I looked it up and discovered that it meant someone donating a kidney to a stranger. I had no idea that this was even possible and had never heard of anyone doing it, yet I knew immediately that this was something I felt I might be able to do.
A kidney transplant gave Chris back the joy of life
Chris Boustead, aged 41, from Sussex, received a kidney from an altruistic donor in 2011, after waiting more than three years
“My transplant operation gave me back the joy of life. I had got used to life on dialysis. But without realising it, the whole of my life had become a struggle – a struggle to get up in the morning, to walk to the station, to get to work. And then three days a week I had to leave work at 4pm, to go to dialysis, and I would not get home until about 10.30.
“But instantly after the operation, I had much more energy. The doctors had warned me that it would take a few days for me to get my appetite back, but I was starving as soon as I woke up. The joy of food and the joy of life had come back.”
A kidney transplant gave Keith back his family life
Keith Parsons, 52, from Plymouth received a kidney from an altruistic kidney donor in 2009. Here he describes what a difference it made to his life.
“I’ll never forget the first time I ate liver and onions after my transplant. Nothing has ever tasted as good.” It was one of Keith’s favourite meals and one that he had not been allowed to eat when he was on dialysis. Most important of all was that the kidney gave him back a normal family life.
“The transplant didn’t just turn round my life. It also turned round life for all my family,” said Keith, who has a wife, a 23-year-old daughter and a 17-year-old son, and a four-year-old grandson.