Wendy Morse has given the greatest gift of all to her daughter. The 59-year-old, who now lives in West Wales, spent three nights in hospital during May to have one of her kidneys removed and donated to her daughter, Stephanie Morse.
Stephanie, aged 36, who lives in Two Locks, found out after the birth of her first child that one of her kidneys wasn’t working. Doctors traced this back to a virus she had suffered as a child. She went on to have two more children and this placed further pressure on her single kidney.
The mum-of-three was facing dialysis treatment four times a week or a kidney transplant. She chose a transplant and her mum, dad and sister went for tests. Her mum came back as a match and the donation took place on May 1.
The life-changing operation was almost cancelled when a lump was found on Wendy’s thyroid during a hospital visit to sign the final consent form. It was removed and thankfully it was not cancerous. The pair were packing their bags six weeks later and heading to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardifff for their operations.
The donation was an extra worry for Wendy’s 84-year-old mum as she has lost a son to kidney problems.
Living Donors
The pair want to encourage more people to become Living Donors. Organ Donation Wales says: “Living donation is when someone donates one of their healthy kidneys or part of their liver, lung or small bowel to someone else, whilst they are still alive.Living donation can save the life of someone with organ failure who needs a transplant. The donation could be for a friend or family member, or someone they don’t know.”
If you live in South Wales call 029 20746 432 or [email protected]
If You Go, I Go and Slimming World
Stephanie had to lose weight to have the transplant so she joined Slimming World and the fitness group, If You Go, I Go, run by Torfaen Council. #ifyougoIgo is a campaign to encourage women across Torfaen to be more active. It was a huge success and she lost 26.5lbs.
She has found resting since the operation difficult as she missed the exercise classes with the group. To find out more contact If You Go I Go on Twitter @Ifyougo_Igo or on Facebook @ifyougoigo/
Last Chance to apply ladies! Dont miss out on this amazing opportunity @Ifyougo_Igo @TorfaenLeisureT@torfaensport https://t.co/dusLBpAZSO pic.twitter.com/yeCnqmFXdR
— Ray Morgan Sport & Fitness (@raymorgancoach) June 8, 2018
Watch Stephanie talk about #ifyougoIgo
Give the gift of life
The Health Secretary, Vaughan Gething, said in April: “I’m proud that we are leading the way on organ donation in Wales, but while there are people dying waiting for a transplant, we must work harder to further increase awareness of the possibility of living donation.”
The Welsh Government said: “A successful transplant from a living donor (rather than one from someone who has died) is the best treatment for most people with kidney failure. This offers the recipient the best opportunity of success as 82% of kidneys donated by a living donor will still be working after 10 years. This compares with 75% for kidneys transplanted from deceased donors.”