Number of 'altruistic' kidney donors is on the rise

More and more Britons are choosing to risk long and arduous surgery to give strangers a new lease of life
Mark Moorhouse
Mark Moorhouse is one of 88 Britons who have chosen to be live donors since the practice was legalised. Photograph: Andy Garbutt/DIG

It is close to the ultimate selfless act: undergoing hours of surgery so that one of your kidneys can be removed and used to save or prolong a stranger's life. But record numbers of Britons are doing exactly that.

New figures passed to the Observer by the Human Tissue Authority (HTA) show that the number of people who have donated organs altruistically has risen from 23 to 40 over the past year.

The numbers involved are still small, compared with the 7,000 people with chronic kidney failure who form the bulk of the UK's 8,000-strong organ transplant waiting list. But the upward trend, which medical experts predict will keep going, is making the difference between life and death for some patients and helping others to escape the misery of life on dialysis.

"Altruistic donation is absolutely amazing. I'm blown away by the number of people every year who do it, and by the increase," said Vicky Marshment, the HTA's policy manager. "I'm in awe of the 40 people who did it last year, that they are willing to go through this for somebody they don't know." She added: "By your profound and selfless act, you are changing someone else's life for the next 20 years or so. I don't know if there are any greater acts of altruism out there than that."

Altruistic donation was only legalised in 2006. Initially no one came forward. Then, in 2007-08, 10 people did so. That rose to 15 the next year, then to 23, then to 40 in 2010-11. Volunteers receive no payment, undergo months of medical and psychiatric testing before they can donate and are not allowed to put conditions on who receives their kidney.

"They can't say that it has to go to a child or someone who looks like them, for example. They just know that it will benefit somebody who is a complete stranger. Each of those 40 recipients has their life back," said Marshment. The HTA, which regulates all 1,300 or so organ donations every year by living people, has the final say over whether someone can become an altruistic donor. Volunteers must prove they are in robust health and understand what the long and arduous physical journey will involve, such as a 12-week recovery, and a one-in-3,000 risk of dying while having your kidney removed.


Mark Moorhouse was one of the 40 last year. A radio programme about altruistic donation last year inspired the Bradford man, who cares for adults with learning disabilities and helps run a nightclub in the city. "I thought if I could live a healthy life with just one kidney and give someone else the chance of a healthy life themselves as a result, why not do that?" he said.

"When you read about people with kidney failure talking about how they can't go on holiday, run around their garden with their grandchildren or even go to the shops, because dialysis rules their lives, if you put yourself into that position you would sit and pray that someone out there would do what I have done."

A three-inch scar on his lower abdomen is the only sign of the keyhole surgery that removed his left kidney. Eight weeks later he was back in the gym. All he knows is that his kidney has helped someone regain a normal life, not who got it. "Other people say I've done a huge thing, but I just see it as something I wanted to do. To me it wasn't a big deal. But I do feel quite proud that I've saved or extended someone else's life," Moorhouse added. "If you carry a donor card, there's no reason why you can't do this now, if you are healthy. You don't have to be dead to give someone else the chance of life. You can donate altruistically and still have a perfectly healthy life afterwards," added the father of two.

Keith Rigg, a consultant transplant surgeon at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and HTA board member, said: "The encouraging upward trend probably reflects the fact that there are some very generous people in society, who already give blood or are on the bone marrow register and may now want to donate a kidney. Yes, the numbers are small, but if you're of the 7,000 patients who are waiting for a kidney and you get one from an altruistic donor, that's great."

However, the fact that altruistic donation does not help those who need a new liver, heart or lungs means extra efforts need to be made to increase the supply of organs from the deceased, which remains the main source of body parts, Rigg added. While about 2,500 kidney transplants are performed every year, some 3,000 patients die while waiting for a transplant and another 300 die while on the waiting list.

Professor Neil Turner, a kidney doctor in Edinburgh and chairman of Kidney Research UK, said that more and more people were visiting his unit's website to inquire about becoming an altruistic donor. While volunteers and their family and friends of donors are often anxious before the operation, so too are surgeons, as they know it is medically unnecessary, he added.

Concern is growing that the HTA's vital organ donation work will be damaged as a result of controversial government plans to scrap the regulator as part of its "bonfire of the quangos". Ministers have still not made clear which organisation will take on that role, and peers, MPs and doctors are pressing for a rethink.