I’m 62 now, but donated just before I turned 50. It feels like an eternity ago!
Coming up to Christmas time in 2013, I remember listening to an elderly chap on the radio. I used to listen to a lot of Radio 4 while driving between sites as part of my job as a medical director, but this interview stood out to me. The man was speaking about living kidney donation. It immediately planted that seed in me that this was something I could do.
I had four girls, so we had to explain everything to them before the process began. They were all on board fairly quickly (though they were shocked when they came into hospital after the donation and saw all the tubes attached to me). If they had pushed back or shown any true resistance to the idea then I would have seriously considered if it was right for me, but my circumstances allowed it.
I spoke to someone up in London to express my interest in donating. Then began the plethora of tests to see if I was able to donate. I was struck by how they didn’t push me at all – I actually had to push them sometimes.
The testing took around 6-7 months from start to finish. It all worked really well and it was all reasonably straightforward. I learnt a lot about my own body during the process.
Once the tests were complete and I was approved to donate, the donation itself was very straightforward. It happened near my birthday in the summer, which made any sort of laughing quite hard!
I went back to work three weeks after the operation, which I only later admitted was a mistake. I was still in the recovery period and should have given myself more time to rest. I had to sleep in my car during lunchtimes, which tells its own story. Once that initial period was out of the way, though, I was able to return to my normal life.
At the end of the day, you only need one kidney to live a good life. I’m living proof of that, and I think it would be wonderful if more people knew it was the case.
