Fifteen ready to give kidney

Fifteen ready to give kidney

Article from: The Mercury
PHILIPPA DUNCAN
December 21, 2007 12:00am

FIFTEEN southern Tasmanians are hoping to become live donors and give a kidney to a sick stranger.

They came forward after Tasmanian kidney donor Michelle Eather last month launched a national search for living donors.

Ms Eather made international headlines this year when she donated a kidney to US businessman Ronnie Andrews. Yesterday, she said she was now "in the enviable position" of being short of kidney recipients.

"I have two A-negative donors, but no one to receive," she said. "There are also another five considering donating."

Tests will determine if there are matches to allow transplants to occur. Australia has one of the lowest rates of organ donation in the Western world, and in Tasmania people wait for up to eight years for a kidney.

Ms Eather said the people who had volunteered to donate a kidney came from all walks of life.

They included men, women, young, old, a truck driver, political aide, cat breeder and a supervisor at ship builder Incat.

"They have just gone: 'Hell, I could do that.' They are all driven by the desire to help someone else," she said.

Ms Eather, who suffered an infection and lost weight after her transplant operation in July, has been talking at kidney conferences and visiting dialysis wards.

She has spent $20,000 of her own money advertising for live donors and is "fast running out of money".

She has been inundated with calls from people, including lawyers, offering their support.

"Making people happy makes it worth it," she said.

She has set up a not-for-profit organisation, Living Donors.

"There are plenty of people out there who want to donate, they just don't know how," she said.

"I don't want to see another kidney exported offshore."

Ms Eather said there had only been 12 kidney transplants performed in Tasmania this year, so another 15 potential transplants was an amazing result.

People can contact Ms Eather on 6267 4211 or 0408 681 111.

http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,22958221-5007221,00.html