Sharing the story of being a living donor

Donating a kidney to a complete stranger is something few of us might ever consider.

Teesside University academic Dr Gill Owens is among the several hundred people to have altruistically donated a kidney after the process became legal in 2006.

Altruistic kidney donation involves an individual offering their kidney as a living donor to an unknown person in order to enable to recipient to live a longer and healthier life.

In April 2015 there were 6,919 people on the UK organ donor waiting list, each waiting an average of two and a half years for a donor. Awareness of this situation led to the development of a legal framework for altruistic donation in the UK.

Gill will draw from her own personal experiences when she shares her story of becoming a living donor at a talk at Teesside University.

Hear Gill’s story at the University’s Centuria Building, H0.01, 5.00pm to 7.00pm on Wednesday 11 November. Places must be booked on events@tees.ac.uk

She will be joined by Dr Caroline Wroe, nephrologist with South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust, to explore the journey towards altruistic donation and the medical science behind kidney donation in the UK.

Gill, 49, of Yarm, watched her sister-in-law Anita gain a new lease of life following a kidney transplant. Sadly Anita passed away a few months after the birth of her first grandchild.

It was the loss of Anita and the birth of a new arrival which led Gill to make her selfless donation of a kidney earlier this year 'to help someone else’s Anita'.

She is now working with Dr Wroe on research into trigger points to examine what it is which leads people into making the decision to donate an organ.

For Gill it was the birth of Anita’s first grandchild which proved to be her trigger point. She said: 'It made me realise that although I don’t have children myself, I can give life in another way.'

Gill who was approaching the end of her PhD contacted the transplant office the day after her studies were complete in order to set the ball rolling to become a living donor.

'There is a very long and complex system involved in finding a match, but they found a match which was perfect in January this year,' said Gill, who underwent surgery a few months later, with her kidney successfully transplanted to offer a new lease of life to the recipient.

'I want people to know that it possible to do this, how to go about it and what it involves,' said Gill.

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More information about Gill's talk