Plans unveiled to increase live kidney transplantataions

Plans unveiled for increasing living kidney transplantation in the UK at any rate

Apparently, this means that different ways of donating, including paired and pooled donation and altruistic donations for any recipient in need are going to be invested in (and heavily marketed I assume). 

 

Paired/Pooled donation being this [right] 

Altruistic donation being this [left] (imagine the giver also being blindfolded):

 

In my bed in Hammersmith, London, where I had my transplant, I was next to a couple who'd been part of a triplet transplant. He needed a new kidney. His wife wasn't a match. She donated and her kidney was received by someone in Scotland. The person in Scotland's partner's kidney was received by someone in Birmingham whose partner's kidney was received by the man sitting next to me.

If that scheme could be invested in more, then maybe we wouldn't be relying on waiting lists turning around as we currently do. Only this week I found out that, of the 400 deaths each day of 'declared donors' only 2 have their organs used for transplantation.

The starkest statistic is that, in 2010/11, there were 1.5K kidney donations from dead donors and 1K from living donors. Of all the millions in the UK who say they have donor cards, only 1000 are turning into kidney transplants a year. Given that I'm 2.5 years into my kidney transplant and look like I might soon need another one, I'm invested in getting this system working better. Deeply invested, in fact. Scarily so. 

This weekend I found myself thinking through the order of priority in which I might ask my relations for their kidneys. My ever generous uncle, my brother, my cousin, my in-laws... If my kidney is on its way out after a couple of years and I'm not even 32, I might actually have to project plan my way through to survival. Please would someone get cracking on the stem cell research. 

Watch this moving appeal from Michael J Fox.

I hear ya.