Give away a kidney?

This time last year, 58 year old Di Franks did the most remarkable thing, she had major surgery and gave away her kidney to a complete stranger. With over 7,000 people on the transplant waiting list, Di’s completely altruistic action changed someone’s life forever.

Issue date: 8 June 2011

In late 2005 her friend in America decided to donate after reading a story about someone looking for a kidney, this in turn inspired Di to look into the matter, “it knocked me back when she told me, I didn’t even know you could do that, I always assumed you had to be related to the other person.  The fact that she was giving away a kidney just amazed me I had the most overwhelming desire to do the same thing - what greater gift could you give somebody, than a second chance at life,” says Di. 

However Di had to put her enthusiasm on hold because a framework for altruistic donations only became possible in the UK in 2006, with the introduction of the Human Tissue Act and the Human Tissue Authority.  In 2007 Di approached her local transplant unit to discuss the matter further.

Many often question the drive and reasoning behind people who are willing to undergo major surgery for no physical benefit to themselves, leaving them with just one kidney.  This is an immense charitable act that donors do because they can, and they want to.  “I have always been aware of other peoples’ pain, I can relate to it, if I see someone upset, I get upset and want to do something, it’s just the way I am, I can feel the pain inside others, I hate seeing anybody suffer physically or mentally, I hate injustice” says Di.

Preparing

Having made initial enquiries with the transplant unit, Di set about preparing herself for the biggest decision of her life - she thought long and hard about it, putting herself through various imagined situations and assessed how she might react emotionally, “I’m well aware that just because our emotions tell us something is the right thing to do, it doesn’t mean it’s the most sensible thing to do.  The more I looked into it the more I became aware of just how terrible it is to be on dialysis and so this just made me more determined to go through with it.”

Di also had practical concerns - what were the risks, what would the surgery be like and what would her life and health be like afterwards?  She was told that the risk of death during the operation was 1 in 3,000, that she could get deep vein thrombosis, blood clots and maybe chest infections but all of these were low risks.  “Most importantly after all this questioning I discovered that kidneys are actually quite robust and that looking to the future my body would work fine with just one.”

Deciding

 “I did write a check list of pros and cons, researched a lot online and talked to people online but kept the matter very private from family and friends, I needed to be sure I understood the whole process and had properly assessed my own reasons for doing this.  I feared negativity from people, fuelled by lack of knowledge or reservations and knew this would not be constructive in helping me make up my mind.  I really did a lot of soul searching to check that my motivations were purely altruistic.”

Donating

The whole process takes some months and involves various health tests and a psychological assessment.  None of these tests were painful but did take place over a long period of time.  The process normally takes around eight months but Di’s took longer.  Eventually, having been given approval to donate,  the call came telling her they had found a potential recipient, “I was over the moon, I was so happy my day had finally arrived.”  She was in surgery for three hours and was home, fit and well, two days later.

“For me I couldn’t think of anything I would ever do that could come near to this - knowing that I could totally transform someone’s life, and that of their family, giving them a second chance, by doing something which took very little effort on my part - that was more than enough for me.”

Now

Like most altruistic donors Di doesn’t want to meet the person who now has her kidney, she did receive a ‘thank you letter’ via the transplant unit a few months afterwards, “that was quite emotional for me but I would never want to meet my recipient, I would hate for them to feel indebted to me and feel they have to send me a Christmas card every year.  It’s enough for me knowing that ‘Charlie’ (that’s what I called my kidney) found a good home!”

Di now spends much of her time helping others going through the same process and has set up her own website.  “A lot of people find my website really useful and I’ve been contacted by people who want me to be there for them as they go the process and I’m more than happy to do so - I found it an exceptionally lonely experience and wished I had someone to talk to.  I never met anyone else who had donated and it would have helped back then, as they would have understood what I was going through. Everyone chooses their own route in coming to this decision and I am here if people just want to chat.  I do know that if I could, I would donate all over again.”

You can listen to Di in conversation on BBC Radio 4’s The Choice. For more information on altruistic donation read our press release highlighting the huge increase in altrustic donations. Give us your comments and follow us on Twitter.

To understand more about our work in this area visit our altruistic donation webpage. To discuss becoming an altruistic donor and contacting your local transplant centre, visit NHS Blood and Transplant’s website.