Donating a kidney may be one of the most important decisions you make in your life, and it takes sacrifice and a lot of courage. Offering to become my brother’s living donor was a natural thing for me to do, in fact it was a no brainer! I loved him and I wanted him to live longer and regain his full health and as his sister it was important for me to give him that chance.
Coming forward as a living donor was quite an emotional experience for me and I had a roller coaster of emotions. I remember sitting in the kidney clinic waiting room at Guy’s hospital on the 13th of January 2011 waiting to be seen by Miri, my clinical nurse specialist desperately hoping that I would be a match for my brother and I was!
It was a great feeling knowing that I was going to change my brother’s life. But sadly after eight months of tests I was told that my health may be at risk if I donated so unfortunately I wouldn’t be able to help Tayo.
Through my disappointment, I founded Gift of Living Donation, I wanted to use my experience to raise awareness of the benefits of living donation so that more black people affected by chronic kidney disease can have access to a living donor kidney transplant.