Jenson’s Story

Jenson, a trained dancer and yoga teacher, simply wanted to do something to help. After wanting to do more than just funding charities and incentives, he questioned how he could make a direct positive impact himself. 

While working in America, I volunteered at a children’s hospital. I met lots of patients and heard their stories about living with terminal illness, and how the impact of supporters were able to help them. It inspired me to find ways to make a positive impact.  

I realised that I was my most powerful tool in being able to help improve the lives of others, so I began donating blood and plasma.  

It was a number of years later that the idea of living kidney donation just struck me. I already knew it was possible to donate a kidney to a stranger through TV shows and medical dramas – I remember a particularly powerful episode of Grey’s Anatomy where they had set up a kidney donation chain of six people that really made an impact on me. It really showed how one person’s donation can have a massive impact on the lives of others. It felt like the natural next step for me, and I acted on it pretty quickly once that thought settled with me. If I can give something to someone else that only minorly impacts my life, then that was the right thing for me to do. 

Life after my transplant  

I did have to relearn how to use my abdominal muscles and how to slow down from the terrifically fast paced lifestyle I was leading before.  

I returned to yoga within about six weeks and gradually added on to my physical routine week by week. Within a few months I probably got myself to the strongest, fittest and most compassionate I had been about my body in my whole life.  

Honestly, my donation affects my day-to-day life very little. I am back to my normal self, my routine and how I operate. But I do see the impact and care we can have for each other and how even the smallest gestures can really change someone’s life or attitude. Not having had a personal interaction with anyone with kidney failure or the recipient, it does make me think about the silent battles we each face and how some kindness can really spread a little further than we are aware. 

I remember meeting a friend a few weeks after surgery and feeling so tired and drained from the impact this had on my body. Then a few months later, they commented on this radical change – how lifted my spirit was, how strong and fit I had become, and how I really just came to life after the whole experience.  

The experience of donating a kidney made me happy and a little emotional at times. It all feels like a dream now; something which I can imagine may have meant so much to someone else but relatively took so little of my time and energy.  

Jenson 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.