Prafula Shah donated a kidney to her niece Shakti to give her a better life. Shakti had suffered from chronic kidney disease from childhood. In late 2017, at the age of 24, her condition dramatically deteriorated, and she was in need of a transplant.
Although Prafula was not a direct match for Shakti, they joined the National Living Donor Kidney Sharing Scheme. The scheme attempts to pair donors and recipients across the UK – kidneys are swapped between one incompatible donor and recipient and another mismatched pair. After completing rigorous medical and psychological tests, their details were included in the national database. A match was found in January 2018, and a donation took place in March 2018. This has changed Shakti’s life, and they are now encouraging more people from our community to step forward to donate.
Prafula says: “Most people have two working kidneys, and we can live perfectly normal lives with one kidney. Donating my spare kidney to my niece made perfect sense, and it has given her a new lease of life.”