22 donors give kidney to strangers

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Barbara Ryder, a nurse from Plymouth, was one of the UK's first altruistic kidney donors, giving her organ to Andy Loudon, a retired carpenter from Bedfordshire, in 2007.

New figures from the HTA show 15 people were approved as altruistic kidney donors in 2008/09, up from 10 in 2007/08. Of those, 22 transplants have been carried out.

Most organs for transplants are donated from people who have died, but more and more operations involve living donors such as the partners, family and friends of those who are ill. In 2008/09, the HTA approved 1,023 living donations, up from 971 in 2007/08.

A total of 927 transplants involving living donors were carried out in 2008/09, including 16 pooled or paired operations between two sets of couples, and 15 altruistic donations.

In 2008, a total of 2,298 kidney transplants were carried out. At the moment, 6,961 people are on the active waiting list for a kidney transplant in the UK.

Vicki Chapman, director of policy and strategy at the HTA said: "It is remarkable to see an increase in the number of people who want to donate a kidney to someone they do not know.

"We expected to see a small number of cases when we first started approving this type of transplant, but we did not expect to see the number rise so significantly after just one year.

"Donating a kidney to someone you do not know really is an altruistic act; the medical tests take time and the procedure is not without risk. It is the role of the HTA to ensure that those giving so generously fully understand the risks involved."