Case studies

"I knew exactly the moment she went. I said as much to the nurse, but she seemed a bit taken aback - too upset perhaps to respond".

In the long hours that followed, awaiting the two series of tests for brainstem death, Gay received immense kindness from the intensive care staff.

"Nothing was too much trouble for them," she says. "They were happy to answer all my questions and to explain anything I wanted to know. One of the most wonderful things was that they let me wash Valerie's hair. She had lovely hair, but here it was all matted and dirty from the accident. It meant a lot to me to be able to do that for her".

Looking back Gay can recall the sense of calmness and clarity which helped to carry her through those first few days.

"Above all", she says, " Valerie herself had asked me about organ donation only a few months before - and said that she would want to be a donor if anything happened to her. So when the time came I offered donation. There was no shadow of doubt in my mind, but that I was doing what Valerie had wanted."

A recipient's story - two transplants and a new baby

Baby Peter, born in January 1991, wasn't even a twinkle in Jane's eyes when she developed the kidney failure which nearly robbed her of the chance of motherhood. Cambridgeshire-born Jane was 21 when she met he future husband, Tim, in June 1984. A month earlier she had gone with friends to sign up as a blood donor, but "You can't give blood", she was told, "You're anaemic".

Jane was given tablets for the anaemia, but, as the months went by, she began to feel worse instead of better. She remembers always being so abnormally cold and tired, and every so often she would have bouts of vomiting. Worst of all was the overwhelming tiredness:

"I was always falling asleep. At work, when the other girls went off to lunch, they'd leave me to have a sleep".

The couple became engaged in January 1985 and Jane - now hardly passing urine - began a round of hospital appointments. At on point she was tested for leukaemia. Finally, her kidney disease was diagnosed at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge and she was admitted for two weeks to begin haemodialysis. The twice-weekly sessions were so restrictive that, when she and Tim married in the  August, they could only have a three-day honeymoon.

Jane had her first transplant less than a month later, but the new kidney failed within a fortnight and had to be removed. Very sick and weak, she went back onto life-saving haemodialysis. However, much to her relief she was switched to continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) just over a year later. This is a method of cleansing the blood by way of a catheter inserted into the peritoneum (the lining of the abdomen).

Jane's dialysis bags had to be changed three times a day.

"But", she says, "the point is that you can do it anywhere, in your own time. I've dialysed all over the place - at home, at work, in the cab of Tim's lorry parked in a lay-by on the M1. I used to do all right on the CAPD, although you do tend to feel permanently bloated."

The long-term answer, Jane knew, lay with a second transplant, but it took four years for the call to come. Then in September 1989, she was re-admitted to Addenbrooke's, had the transplant and was home again within nine days.

"I can honestly say I've felt perfect ever since", she says, "even when I was carrying Peter. Of course, you're supposed to wait at least a year after the transplant before you try for a baby. I'm afraid I jumped the gun…"

"Tim had a brother who died in an accident and became an organ donor two years before we met. So when I had my first transplant - so soon after we were married - and then again when I was waiting for my second, I think it really brought home to him just what donation means to those waiting for organs."

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