A YESILTEPE-based veteran soldier is one of the UK’s first 500 people to donate a kidney to a stranger as a living donor.

NHS Blood and Transplant revealed today that 500 people in the UK have now donated a kidney to a stranger as a living donor in the 10 years since the law was changed to allow this.

Among the 500 generous donors is a retired soldier currently living in Yesiltepe who donated one of his healthy kidneys to a stranger. This is known as non-directed (altruistic) living kidney donation.

Eamonn Byrne BEM born in Dublin Ireland, who is a soldier veteran of the Irish Defence Forces, the Royal Engineers and The Sultanate of Oman Forces, donated a kidney in at Royal Liverpool Hospital.

Eamonn has lived in the Yesiltepe community for the last 6 years. He said: “There are more than 5000 people in need of a kidney in the UK and around 300 people die needlessly every year.

“I felt it was my duty of care as a soldier to offer help where I could and I urge others to think “Share Your Spare”.

“Would I recommend it? Absolutely. It’s a very satisfying thing to have done and after all one kidney is enough!”

Eamonn donated in 2011 and has kept his secret since. Only now have the details become public knowledge and only at the request of the charity “Give a Kidney” in a bid to make the local population of the possibilities of donation. All 500 donors have been asked to go public.

Any healthy adult can volunteer to be assessed as a living donor and a kidney from a living donor is the very best treatment option for most patients with kidney diseases.

The volunteer donor goes through a thorough assessment over several months to ensure they are fit and healthy and that the risk to them is as low as possible. If approved, they are matched with a suitable recipient from the transplant waiting list, or they can also enter into a sharing scheme which enables one non-directed donor to potentially ‘trigger’ up to three transplants.

Bob Wiggins Chair of charity Give a Kidney which raises awareness of non-directed kidney donation said:

“We’re encouraging everyone to consider if you could share your spare.

“Many people still don’t know that any healthy adult can volunteer as a living donor. As a result of people like Eamonn, many hundreds of lives have been changed for the better. Not only that, but together this group has already saved the NHS tens of millions of pounds over the cost of keeping the recipients on dialysis treatment.”

Lisa Burnapp, Lead Nurse for Living Donation at NHS Blood and Transplant said: “Living donation is highly successful, and hundreds of people have had their lives saved and transformed in reaching this milestone over the past decade, thanks to the incredible generosity of these donors.

“Through donor chains, up to three can people can benefit from a single donation because it can trigger a chain of transplant. The more people who are willing to consider donating in this way, the more kidneys there are available to help everyone waiting for a transplant.”

Living kidney donation has been taking place in the UK since the 1960s. It is a highly successful form of transplantation carried out at NHS hospitals and regulated by the Human Tissue Authority.

People wishing to consider giving the gift of a kidney to someone as a living donor can find out more at www.giveakidney.org #ShareYourSpare

To register your wish to donate your organs after your death please visit www.organdonation.nhs.uk