Eight kidney-donating pensioners take part in special reunion at Walberton

Each of them is known as a non-directed or ‘altruistic’ kidney donors – people who have donated one of their kidneys to a stranger on the NHS waiting list whom they will probably will never meet.

The eight pensioners with only eight kidneys between them met at a unique reunion on Saturday, June 6, at the Walberton home of one of the donors, Cherry Williams, 68, who gave her kidney just before Christmas last year.

Also attending were Susanne Dadswell, 68, and Jane Shorrock, 82, both from Emsworth who donated in 2013 and only last month respectively.

They were joined by Judi McGetrick, 68, from Alresford, Nicholas Crace, 86, from Overton, Janet Hope, 70, from Sandown, Sue Day, 68, from Gurnard, and Trish Bailey, 70, from Portsmouth.

The donors all gave their kidneys at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth.

Last year seven donors gave their kidneys in this way at the hospital, out of the national total of altruistic kidney donations of 107.

Some 300 people who are said to be in need of a kidney die each year, while around 6000 people are on the waiting list for a kidney transplant.

Statistics show that 90 to 95 per cent of kidneys from living donors are working well one year after transplantation, compared with 85-90 per cent for those received from a dead person.

Most people would take a donated organ if they needed one, but only around a third of them have joined the Organ Donor Register.