Kidney donor gave me 30 extra years

[okarol]

Kidney donor gave me 30 extra years
Monday, March 15, 2010, 06:30

As he picked up the telephone, Mike Broddle had no idea his life was about to change forever.

It was the call he had spent three years waiting for – a possible kidney donor had been found.

Mr Broddle had to wait 30 minutes for a call back to confirm the organ was a match.

"That was the longest half an hour of my life," said Mr Broddle, 64, of Clarendon Street, west Hull.

When the next call came to say the operation could go ahead, he was left with minutes to prepare for the transplant.

That was 30 years ago now, but the events of March 13, 1980, are permanently etched into Mr Broddle's memory.

He marked the anniversary of his successful transplant with a party for his family and friends on Saturday.

"I was always waiting for that phone call," he said.

"I was on tenterhooks for three years so it was brilliant to get the phone call to say they had found a match."

Mr Broddle was only a teenager when his kidneys began failing and he had to start having dialysis.

However, his only long-term option for survival was to have a transplant.

"It really has saved my life," he said.

"I have been able to enjoy 30 years that I wouldn't have had otherwise."

Although organ recipients are never given the name of the donor, Mr Broddle knows his kidney came from a 17-year-old who was killed in a car crash in Leeds.

He said: "I think it is brilliant that his family allowed his organs to be donated. The kidney has been a perfect match for me.

"I never thought it would last such a long time. I have never had any problems with it, so I am very lucky.

"I can't really believe it at all."

He now believes that organ donation should be made compulsory, with the option for people to remove themselves from the list.

"There are so many people who die while they are waiting for a transplant.

"It would help so many people if organ donation was made compulsory.

"It has made such a difference to me."

Although he has recently been diagnosed with skin cancer, Mr Broddle says he feels "tremendous".

His party took place on Saturday at the Hole in the Wall, Spring Bank, Hull city centre, and was attended by his daughters Katherine, 41, and Maxine, 40, and son Richard, 27.

http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/news/Kidney-donor-gave-30-extra-years/article-1910940-detail/article.html