Selfless woman donates a kidney to a stranger

[Karol]

Selfless woman donates a kidney to a stranger

6:10am Thursday 3rd May 2012 in News By Corey Ross

DONATING a kidney is no small gesture and for most people the decision is taken in order to save the life of a loved one.

But for Joanna Kozubska of Berwick St Leonard, the motivation is entirely selfless, without any personal benefit to herself or those close to her.

Joanna, 66, is what is known as an altruistic donor. She decided she simply wanted to donate one of her organs to a complete stranger.

Speaking shortly before going into hospital for the operation on Tuesday, she said: “As somebody who has enjoyed very good health all of my life, it was something I thought about years ago when I knew it was going to be legal for non-related people to donate.

“But I forgot about it until I was reminded by a programme I watched about organ donation and I thought ‘if I’m going to do this, I better get on with it before I get any older’.”

She contacted the renal unit at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, the nearest kidney transplant centre to Salisbury, to start the process.

 
She has undergone six months of tests, including ultrasounds, MRI scans, blood tests and psychological assessments, to make sure she is healthy enough to give a kidney, has sufficient kidney function to live with one kidney and is physically and emotionally prepared for the donation.

Joanna, a management development consultant, said she isn’t concerned about only having one kidney.

“I could be run over by a bus,” she said. “I don’t think these things are worth worrying about at my age.”

Until 2006 all living kidney donors were either relatives or friends, and when the first altruistic donations started in 2007/8 there were only six.

The numbers are still small but are increasing each year, up to 28 in 2010/11.

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Joanna is hoping her story will help inspire more people to become a live donor.

There are 6,500 people on the waiting list for a kidney transplant, but only 2,500 take place each year and 300 people with kidney failure die each year while waiting for a transplant.

The NHS has to spend about £30,000 a year for each person on dialysis and if the UK could increase the number of transplants by just 100 a year, it would save the NHS an estimated £20million over the next ten years. Joanna said: “I have done this for all those people who haven’t been able to enjoy the healthy life that I have. As a nation, surely we can find 7,000 of us who could do this? It’s not for everybody, not everybody would want to and not everybody is suitable, but there are people like me out there and I want to make sure everybody knows about it and at least has the choice.”

Anyone interested in becoming a donor can visit giveakidney.org or contact the living donor co-ordinator nursing team at their closest kidney transplant centre.

http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/9678552.Selfless_woman_donates_a_kidney_to_a_stranger/