‘She had more energy, she felt warm, she wasn’t tired’

Father gave kidney to stranger to save wife in donor swap

- RACHEL CLUN

James Collins donated a kidney to help save his wife. But his kidney didn’t go to her – instead, the pair were involved in a three-way organ swap involving six patients, three hospitals and dozens of staff.

The UK Kidney Sharing Scheme connects donors who are unable to match with family members to people who can help them. Last year, more than 20 three-way organ swaps took place as part of the scheme which can see organs rushed by car, ambulance and even plane from hospital to hospital across the UK.

Mr Collins’s wife Claire was born with a rare kidney disease, and while he was not a match for his wife, doctors said they could be entered into the national database as a pair, with the hopes of finding other pairs that could match. “With the shared scheme, it was a no-brainer: it wasn’t just Claire’s life we were impacting at that point,” he told The Independent.