A woman who spent "years" on a kidney waiting list found her saviour by total coincidence on a Welsh beach. Lucy Humphrey, 44, from Caerphilly, had been living with lupus since the year 2000 and in 2017 was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure, knowing she would need a kidney donor to have certainty over how long she would live.
Lucy and her partner Cenydd Owen had hoped to take their dogs away on campervan holidays but had to cancel their plans as Lucy couldn't be away for more than a couple of nights due to her regular dialysis treatments. As a compromise, the couple took their dogs to Cold Knap Beach in Barry and set up a barbecue.
But one of their two Dobermans, named Indie, was on a mission. Indie kept going over to another campervan, where a woman was sitting and crocheting. "Indie went over like three times, back and forward to her," Lucy explained.
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"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 started chatting, eating and drinking. The stranger Indie was bothering turned out to be Katie James, 40, from Barry - 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 to make an altruistic donation.
As soon as she realised Lucy was waiting for a kidney transplant, Katie said she'd love to donate. "We swapped telephone numbers," said Lucy. "And to be honest I didn't think anything else would come of it."
Cenydd and one of his friends had both offered to donate their kidneys but neither were a match. But after blood tests and scans, the result came back - Katie was a perfect match.
Lucy said the chances of her and Katie meeting in the first place, then turning out to be a perfect match, must have been "one in 22 million." They got the ball rolling in June 2021, and the transplant took place in October 2022, something Lucy says was down to Covid-related backlogs.
As Lucy recovered from the operation, her blood pressure dropped as the kidney didn't "wake up" straight away. She had to spend four weeks in hospital - but luckily, she was on the same ward as Katie, so they spent time together before Katie was discharged, and had Cenydd bringing drinks up to them.
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 also didn't expect her kidney to be a perfect match for Lucy, but was happy she could donate her kidney to someone she could keep in contact with.
"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 had applied for the donation register in 2019 and had a couple of appointments, but was faced with delays when the pandemic hit. She'd just resumed the process of signing up when she met Lucy and Cenydd on the beach and is grateful Indie matched them up by repeatedly running over to Katie's campervan.
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," and have met for meals and are planning a holiday with their campervans. Lucy herself is starting to get back to doing the things she loves.
She's back out dog walking with Indie and her other dog Dave - three times a day, or if you ask Katie, "a million times a week." She 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.
To become a living donor, you need to contact your closest transplant unit. In south Wales, contact 02920746432 or Live.Donor.cav@wales.nhs.uk. In north Wales, contact 01517064725. You can find more information here.
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