Living Kidney Donation

Posts Tagged ‘Kidney recipient’

A small, friendly group of people, in Scotland, have come together to help promote non-directed (altruistic) kidney donation.

Colin posted this as a comment on one of my posts on this website.

Following an initial meeting in Edinburgh with Susan and Pam, we had another meeting last night with donors Chris, Kate and John, and recipient Gus, and as a result have formed an informal group to raise public awareness of altruistic kidney donation in Scotland. We are mostly based in the east, but are happy to include any Scots that wish to join us, and help expand our horizons. We have plans to make presentations to small groups/clubs such as Rotary and WI, but in time we hope to involve the press and broadcast media. The tenth anniversary in September of the change in the law may prove a useful hook for media coverage. The media being what they are, it would be useful to have a well-known personality (either donor or recipient) on our team.

Although we have no official affiliation, we will probably try to work with giveakidney.org, and will also promote your website. Incidentally, that’s a great piece about your donation on their website.

We’re just starting, and have a lot to learn, but our long term aim is to match the number of Scottish donors to the number on the waiting list – quite a challenge! We realise, incidentally, that kidneys are matched throughout the UK, not specifically in one area; it’s just a convenient way of setting a target.

We’d like your help in encouraging other Scots donors (and recipients) to join us. Everyone can help in their own way, be it in giving talks to small groups, being available for one-to-one meetings, helping with distribution of literature, or advising on promotions. We’re a very friendly group, and all of us have found it really enjoyable being able to share our experiences with each other. From there it’s a small step to sharing with others.

Take care,

Colin.

If you are interested in joining them, or want further information, please contact Colin on
haggis{at}acme-properties.co.uk
please replace the {at} with @ …… putting the email in full would attract the spammers unfortunately.

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A full in depth account of being a Living Kidney Donor can be found here. From my decision to donate, risks of living with one kidney to the risks of donating a kidney. My emotions along the way and why I donated. The evaluation tests involved in being a living kidney donor and what I thought of them! The frustrations and sadness and finally joy of finding a recipient for my kidney. The final pre-donation tests that gave me a sleepless night or two right up until the day before the kidney operation! Then the day of the operation to remove my kidney together with recovery after the kidney donation, in hospital as well as back home.

A lot of useful advice is also given in the comments section of the post, so they are worth reading also.

Please either scroll to the bottom of this page or use the links on the left to read about the different stages of kidney donation. The links across the top of the page also give an insight into my reasons for donating a kidney plus some useful links on the subject.

If anyone has any questions regarding the donation process or how I felt about any aspect of it, then please do post a comment or if you prefer contact me via the contact page (link at top of page).

One thing I will say is that if I could do this all over again I would without hesitation.
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HTA approval given to donate a kidney – Finding a recipient

My transplant coordinator asked if there were any dates I may not be available for the operation and when was best for me. Once I was registered at UK Transplant things could happen quite quickly so it was important I was not registered at until we were ready. I had a couple of dates that I wanted to avoid otherwise a clear calendar. My family were fine for things to proceed also. My details were then registered at UK Transplant.

The recipient is selected for blood type matching, tissue match, age, length of time on waiting list and various other medical / non medical factors, all of which are there to make the system as fair as possible and also to select the best match to reduce any chance of rejection.

Do not think that once you get to the stage of HTA approval that everything will be straightforward.  It may not be. It was not for me. I made the mistake of assuming it would all now be plain sailing but we still had a few hurdles to get over and it was quite an emotional time for me.
Read the rest of this entry – finding a recipient