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Dennis’ Story

Dennis is keen to show people that you can still live your life as normal and achieve great things after donating a kidney.

Image of living kidney donor Dennis with two other living kidney donors, all in cycling clothing, smiling at the camera

I first heard of non-directed living kidney donation, where you donate a kidney to someone you don’t know, a long time ago. I believe I first heard about it on BBC Radio 4, where they were interviewing a non-directed donor. It was only when I stopped working full-time that I reconsidered the possibility of actually doing it myself.  

I contacted my nearest transplant centre (The Churchill Hospital in Oxford) in May 2019 and was approved the following March – just before living donations were suspended because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, this was a difficult time for me – around this time I fell off my bike and fractured my pelvis, then a month later I lost my elder brother to Covid. It wasn’t until December that year that I felt ready enough to put myself back on the list, eventually donating in August 2021. 

Image of living kidney donor Dennis with two other living kidney donors, all in cycling clothing, smiling at the camera

Despite the delay, the team at Oxford were very understanding. They contacted me in the summer of 2020 when living donations were resumed. I explained my circumstances to my living donor coordinator, and she just suggested that I contact them again when the time was right for me. Not for the first time, she said that I could drop out at any time, even up to the date of the operation.   

Like many donors I know, my immediate family were at first quite apprehensive about my decision to donate a kidney to a stranger but have since been very supportive of what I am doing, and proud of what I have done. 

The operation itself went very well. The pain levels I felt afterwards were easily managed – my fractured pelvis from the year before acted as a bit of a dummy run. I was fully recovered within seven weeks and since then I’ve been able to live life just as I did before.

I think everyone who has been involved in a successful transplant must feel elated at having made a significant difference to someone else’s life, and many would do it again if they could. I certainly felt good, but I also wanted to do more, to go the extra mile, you might say. In fact, it turned out to be 500 extra miles! 

Living kidney donor Dennis and his cycling support team in a grand hallway, all looking at the camera and smiling

I couldn’t repeat the donation process this side of the river Styx, so I set about utilising my past experience in fundraising events and coupled that with raising awareness of living kidney donation. I came up with the idea of The Transplant Tour, a six-day cycle ride from Edinburgh to Oxford, stopping off at a total of seven transplant units during the journey. My aim was to show that being left with just one kidney doesn’t impede your life in any way. You can still live your life as normal, and even take part in things like long-distance endurance bike rides. 

The ride was supported by a fantastic team of volunteers, including a fellow living kidney donor called Paul van den Bosch who cycled with me.  

In all, the event raised over £35,000 for the charity Give a Kidney. Dennis has now turned to a more sustainable way of helping people who might be considering donating a kidney by becoming a Buddy for the UK Living Kidney Donation Buddy Support Service.

 

Dennis is also a Buddy in the UK Living Kidney Donation Buddy Support Service. Visit our webpage on the service if you would like to speak to him, or someone else who has experience in living kidney donation.

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