Kidney transplants on the rise in UK thanks to change to sharing scheme

More altruistic donors are now on kidney sharing scheme, leading to increase in transplants in 2019

Husband and wife Ade and Jane became part of the UKLKSS so that Ade could receive a new kidney. (NHS Blood and Transplant )

The number of patients receiving a kidney transplant from altruistic donors has risen by 60 percent from 2018 to 2019, following a change that allows donors to be routinely added to a kidney sharing scheme.

It is thought that this change, which took place in January 2018, is behind the spike in kidney transplants — with more non-directed altruistic donors (NDADs) now donating via the Living Kidney Sharing Scheme (UKLKSS).

The UKLKSS allowed 71 extra people to receive a kidney transplant from a living donor in 2019 compared with 2018, according to NHS Blood and Transplant.

Under the UKLKSS, a family member or friend who wants to donate a kidney to a loved one, but who is not deemed to be a “match” by doctors, can swap their kidney with another pair in the same predicament.

June and her husband Ade, whose kidneys began to fail when he was 29, decided to become part of the UKLKSS when they discovered they were not a match.

The scheme allowed June to donate her kidney in exchange for a match for Ade.

June said: “Ade is doing great now. We’re looking forward to going travelling this year and do all the things a typical 30-something newlywed couple would do.

“There’s no better feeling than knowing you’ve given someone you love a new lease of life and I’m so grateful for this scheme, which has helped me to do that for Ade.”

For kidneys to be swapped successfully, and for the transplants to take place, all patients in a group or “chain” under the UKLKSS need to match with one of the donors.

When a patient who is part of the UKLKSS requires a rarer match, altruistic donors often enable the chain to be completed. The remaining kidney donation left over in the “chain” is then given to someone on the UK transplant list.

Before the 2018 change, altruistic donors typically decided to donate directly to someone on the UK transplant list.

Lisa Burnapp, lead nurse in Living Donation at NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “More people than ever are successfully getting a transplant and a life free from dialysis, thanks to the generosity of those who donate selflessly through the UK Living Kidney Sharing Scheme each year.”

Living donations account for a third of all kidney transplants in the UK and give the best chance of a healthy transplant, with the remainder of donations coming from deceased donors’ kidneys.

New laws coming into force this year in England and Scotland — in spring and autumn respectively — will mean that after a person’s death their organs will be donated unless they opted out of donation or are in an excluded group.