A POSTMAN has encouraged more people to join him in donating a kidney to a stranger after his “life-affirming” experience.
Carl Pinder, 59, from Radley, joined the growing ranks of the UK’s altruistic kidney donors earlier this year after seeing a friend’s life saved by a transplant.
He is one of just 500 individuals who have so far given the gift of life through the NHS Blood and Transplant to a recipient they have never met.
Mr Pinder, who works for the Royal Mail in Kidlington, said: “About 15 years ago I had a friend with kidney failure and on dialysis; it was a pretty wretched experience.
“She had a transplant and was able to do much more. It transformed her life.”
In 2006 the Human Tissue Act came into effect, with a new public authority set up to regulate all organ transplants involving live donors.
Since then about 500 people have given a kidney to support the thousands in the UK on the list, with Mr Pinder informed he had a match on February 10 this year.
He said: “I had the phone call and I was thrilled, and quite emotional. I was thinking ‘At the same time I have this phone call, everyone else has got theirs’.
“There was brilliant support from my live donor nurse and I spoke to anaesthetists the week before, and there was a psychological test. Everything was fine.”
Mr Pinder’s kidney was removed through keyhole surgery in mid-February and implanted into a woman in her late 50s or early 60s.
It also set off what the service calls a ‘transplant chain’, where the generosity of one person triggers up to three other transplants elsewhere.
Mr Pinder, who has two grown-up children, also received grateful letters in recent months from the woman whose life he saved.
He said: “It was nice to receive. Three years ago she had catastrophic kidney failure and it completely changed her life. Now she’s playing golf again.
“At the end of the day it’s not about me. It’s about the 50,000 on the list waiting for a transplant, and those poor souls who never come off the list.”
During 2015/16, 282 people died while on the active or suspended waiting lists for a kidney, or a kidney and pancreas transplant.
Healthy adults aged 18 and above, with no upper age limit, can donate a kidney if they wish provided they meet all the requirements of the Human Tissue Authority.
Lisa Burnapp, lead Nurse for living donation at NHS Blood and Transplant said: “Living donation is highly successful, and hundreds of people have had their lives saved and transformed in reaching this milestone over the past decade, thanks to the incredible generosity of these donors.”
For more information visit giveakidney.org