Living donors on the rise

Growing numbers of Britons are saving or extendingsomeone's life by giving them a kidney or part of their liver, new NHS figures today show. A total of 1,140 people were approved to become living donors during 2009-2010, which was 92 more than the year before and up from 342 in 2006-07 – a rise of 333% in four years. The increase is helping to tackle the chronic shortage of donated organs in the UK, which results in about 1,000 deaths each year. About 8,000 patients are on the UK organ transplant waiting list, most of them with chronic kidney problems. But in 2008-09 there were just 1,853 donors, both living and deceased, whose organs enabled 3,513 transplants to take place. The latest annual statistics from the Human Tissue Authority (HTA) confirm the trend towards living donation. Last year 1,114 people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were allowed to donate one of their kidneys. Of those 1,091 were classed as "genetically or emotionally directed" – that is, they went to a family member, partner or close friend. Another 29 were paired or pooled donations, in which someone donates an organ that is not compatible with the intended recipient, so that person is matched with another donor in a swap arrangement involving two or more sets of people. A small but growing number of people are opting to donate a kidney to a complete stranger for altruistic reasons. Last year 23 people did that, up from 15 the year before. One of them, a man who wanted to remain anonymous, said: "I wanted to alleviate someone else's pain and suffering. Sharing the healthy life I was blessed with with another person who's not that fortunate is not only a noble gesture on my part but also uplifting philosophically and spiritually. It has given me immense inner happiness." A further 26 people were allowed to donate part of their liver to a relative or friend, though that was down from 36 the previous year. Transplant surgeons welcomed the trend. "The increase in living donors is the biggest achievement in UK transplantation in the last 10 years. A decade ago, only 5% of kidney transplants were from live donors; now it's up to 40% and climbing," said Vassilios Papalois, a kidney and pancreas transplant surgeon at London's Hammersmith hospital. Patients going on to kidney dialysis are now asked at the start of their treatment if they have a relative or friend who might give them one of their kidneys, said Papalois. Such organs were much better for the recipient and more likely to benefit them, he added. He praised altruistic donors. "It's heroic what they are doing," he said. "They are of all ages – I have done these operations on people in their late 60s and late 20s," he added. A spokeswoman for the British Medical Association, the doctors' trade union, said: "At a time when we are often bombarded with bad news, it is extremely refreshing to hear about individuals undertaking remarkable acts of altruism." But the UK still needed to introduce a system of "presumed consent" for organ donation, she added. "Today's announcement shows that a flexible approach to living donation is allowing even more people to benefit from altruistic, paired and pooled donations," said Baroness Diana Warwick, the chair of the HTA. "The continued rise is very encouraging and has exceeded our expectations."