Kidney Sharing Scheme Enables Transplant for Brothers

Neil Jeffs expressed being “blown away” upon receiving a text message from his brother, who had offered to donate a kidney. Neil, a resident of Coventry, had previously received a kidney transplant in 2005 due to a medical condition. His mother had been a compatible donor at that time, and the transplant functioned successfully for 17 years before it started to fail. Despite his younger brother Paul’s willingness to donate, a complication arose: Paul was not a compatible match for Neil. This led them to seek assistance from the UK Living Kidney Sharing Scheme, operated by NHS Blood and Transplant. The scheme employs algorithms to identify optimal combinations of recipients and patients among the hundreds registered concurrently. For Neil, the arrangement proved advantageous because Paul’s kidney was given to another individual on the transplant list, enabling Neil to receive a kidney from an unknown donor. The entire procedure encompassed three recipients and three donors. Neil likened the process to a chain of house sales, stating, “All of the links are very closely related and if one of the links fails, that particular chain fails at that time.” Paul, Neil’s brother, recounted being informed that each kidney possesses six unique numbers. He speculated, “when my mum donated, I imagine she must have had quite a lot of matching with Neil.” He continued, “But when we did the test, we found that…our bloods were fine, I think at that point there was no antibodies, so there wasn’t a problem with that.” However, he noted that “of those six numbers, there wasn’t a single one that matched, so what they do is, my understanding is, that across the country they just throw it into a database.” Paul explained, “Then it will generate that I match with someone who is somewhere in the country and then… we actually did it, it turned out that it was a six-person exchange.” The younger brother mentioned observing a change in his sibling around the end of 2022, stating, “we all noticed visibly that Neil seemed lacking in energy.” He further added, “They told Neil that his kidney… wasn’t working, so I spoke to my wife.” Paul recalled, “I think it was about 23 February I sent Neil a message and said… ‘I’m willing to donate’.” Neil commented, “When I got the text saying that he was willing and able to donate his kidney, [I was] just blown away.” He concluded, “It does make me very emotional when I think… what Paul has done.” The kidney sharing scheme operates anonymously and confidentially, meaning individuals are unaware of their donor or recipient. Exchanges proceed solely if every pair, up to three in total, can be successfully matched, ensuring no patient is overlooked. Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.