A woman who waited years for a life-saving kidney transplant met her saviour in a lucky encounter at the beach.
Lucy Humphrey, 44, from Caerphilly, had been living with lupus since 2000 and in 2017 was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure, meaning she needed a kidney donor to extend her life.
Lucy and her partner Cenydd Owen had to cancel campervan holidays with their dogs because she couldn't be away for more than a couple of nights due to her regular dialysis treatments, reports Wales Online.
Instead they took the dogs to the beach in Barry and had a barbecue.
However one of their two Dobermans, Indie, kept pestering another campervan, where a woman, Katie James, 40, from Barry, was sitting and crocheting.
"Indie went over like three times, back and forward to her," Lucy explained.
"She was minding her own business, campervanning on her own. Eventually Cenydd went over to apologise, and we got chatting and invited her over to our barbecue."
The three got talking and when Lucy mentioned the fact she couldn't drink alcohol as she was on dialysis, Katie revealed she had recently joined the kidney donation register.
She told Lucy she she'd love to help and donate if possible. "We swapped telephone numbers," said Lucy. "And to be honest I didn't think anything else would come of it."
After some blood tests and scans, they were stunned to learn that Katie was a perfect match.
Lucy said the chances of her and Katie meeting and then her being amatch must have been "one in 22 million."
They got the ball rolling in June 2021, but the transplant did not take place until October 2022, and Lucy says this was down to Covid-related backlogs.
Lucy's blood pressure dropped during her recovery as the kidney didn't "wake up" straight away. She then had to spend four weeks in hospital - but was on the same ward as Katie, so they spent time together before Katie was discharged.
Lucy said: "I’m so grateful for her… I told my partner in 2019 if I didn’t find a transplant within five years it was possible something would happen and I would die. I want this to be a message to other people not to give up hope."
Katie says she was delighted to be able to help.
"Originally, I was due to go into a pooled donation," Katie explained. "I wouldn’t know who the kidney went to, where, why, or even if it worked. I was quite happy with that, but I’d never have known.
"[Now,] not only do I know who it’s gone to but I know how she’s doing and how it’s affected her life… I could’ve only imagined it before with a stranger."
Katie first applied to the donation register in 2019 and had a couple of appointments, but then the pandemic hit. She'd just resumed the process when she met Lucy and Cenydd and is grateful to their dog for helpoing her to change a life.
Katie wants to urge people: "If [kidney donation] is something you’ve ever considered or you’re considering now because you’ve heard this story, then look into it. It’s not like giving blood; I’d say to anybody to go and donate blood, but with a kidney it’s such a major operation and a big decision.
"But you can pull out at any point… you are never made to feel guilty or pressured and you have every opportunity to change your mind.
"The team at the Heath have been great, and knowing that you’ve changed somebody’s life is absolutely brilliant."
Katie, Lucy and Cenydd have remained friends since the donation and have a group chat which they've dubbed "the Kidney Gang."
Lucy is back out dog walking with Indie and her other dog Dave - three times a day., and can go on campervan holidays as often as she likes, and says the donation has changed her life completely.
"We could use more people like Katie," she said.
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