25th Anniversary
Today, 27th June 2026 my wife and I are celebrating 25 years since our kidney transplant. On the 27th June 2001 I donated one of my kidneys to Susan through a successful transplant operation at Newcastle’s Freeman hospital.
At that time, the average life expectancy of a transplanted kidney was 11 years. Today we are so grateful for the extra 25 years God has given us together. It was described in local press as a “one in a million” chance because of Susan’s unusual DNA.
When I first met Susan in 1990 she told me quite early on in our relationship that she and her two children had been diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease. And that at some point she could go into kidney failure and need a transplant. I remember saying to her that she could have one of mine but Susan said that would be unlikely as live donors are usually family members. In 2000 Susan’s kidney function began to deteriorate. Susan’s mother asked her consultant if she could be tested to see if she was a match. Susan said that I’d like to be tested too, so the tests began. As it turned out, my mother-in-law wasn’t a match, but I was.
A date was set in 2001 and the operation went ahead. Susan recalls her surgeon saying that the kidney “immediately sprung into action” when it was transplanted. The day after the transplant, the surgeon who removed my kidney came in to see me. I asked how Susan was and he said the operation was a success, although the transplanted kidney could be rejected by Susan’s body. Straight away the words of Jesus from Matthew’s gospel came into my head “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” I said to the surgeon that it wouldn’t reject, the kidney became Susan’s when we got married. That part of our story was featured on Songs of Praise 5 years later which had the theme of people given a new start in life. The programme was filmed in Newcastle at City Church where we have been members since 1993.
Kidney Transplant
Kidney transplant surgery is a procedure takes a healthy kidney from a living or deceased donor into a patient with kidney failure. Taking about 2 to 4 hours under general anesthesia, the surgeon places the new organ in the lower abdomen, connecting it to nearby blood vessels and the bladder.
Kidney Sharing Scheme
The UK Living Kidney Sharing Scheme (UKLKSS) started in April 2007
This kidney exchange programme has increased the number of people who can receive transplants from living kidney donors and the opportunities for patients who wait a long time for a transplant.
Our two children Louise and Oliver, are experiencing deteriorating kidney function and are being monitored by the Freeman Hospital. As we celebrate this special anniversary we are praying that they will each receive a healthy kidney transplant that will be an equal blessing to them as it has for us.