One of my twin daughters was born with kidney failure. We gave her a happy childhood and tried to live a normal life as much as we could, but sadly as time went on her kidneys kept deteriorating. When she was just a few years old, her kidneys failed and she ended up spending eight months in Nottingham hospital. She needed dialysis for 13 hours a day to stay alive. Her renal team spoke to us about whether we’d be prepared to donate a kidney for her and what the process involved. There was no doubt in my mind that it was the right thing to do.
We all got tested to see if our kidneys were a match for her and that we could donate. Her grandad was the best match, so we waited until she was five years old, old enough to receive the organ, and then he donated to her. We were told that the transplant was the biggest age difference between a donor and a recipient in the country at the time.
Her grandad’s kidney gave her a lot of freedom compared to before, but sadly the deterioration slowly began again. By the time she was in her early teens, she needed another kidney or else would need to go back onto dialysis. We all got tested again to see if we could still donate. Interestingly the first time I was told I couldn’t donate to her, but this time around we were told that the science had moved on to a point where I could now safely donate!
