A DOCTOR has told of her decision to donate one of her kidneys to a complete stranger.

In March, Dr Gill Owens, 49, became the 436rd British person to donate a kidney to an anonymous NHS patient since it became legal in 2006.

Now the lecturer at Teesside University has committed herself to spreading the world about the NHS’s Altruistic Programme which enables people to donate to people in need.

Dr Owens said she had seen her sister-in-law, Anita, who she had known since she was nine, “come back to life” after she received a kidney transplant from her big brother and Anita’s husband, George. Seeing the improvement inspired Dr Owens to want to help others.

Being at the birth of her niece's baby at a time when Anita, was too ill to attend, having been struck down with cancer, also had a bearing on her decision.

“I can’t have children of my own,” said Dr Owens, who grew up in Redcar. “My first husband died very young and when my second husband came along we weren’t desperate for children. Then it emerged I couldn’t have children anyway.

“After my niece Sam’s birth to a beautiful little girl, Ellen, it hit me hard that I would never be able to give life. I was sitting there and then my brain went, ‘yeah, but you can, you still can. You can give life.”

Dr Owens' father died of cancer as did her first husband then Anita, who had improved so dramatically after receiving a kidney transplant, fell victim to the disease. After so much tragedy she wanted to do something positive.

After her husband’s concerns that she would not be made ill by the operation were allayed, Dr Owens then had to deal with a year of physical and psychological tests before she was allowed to donate the kidney.

“One thing I didn’t realise was that while most people have two kidneys some only have one and some people have three,” she said. “When I had the test that said I had two kidneys the first emotion was elation. But then came a disappointment that I didn’t have three. I wanted to give two.”

Psychological tests also focussed on how she would cope if her kidney was rejected by the recipient’s body as well as making sure didn’t feel coerced in any way.

In the event the event, both the operation on Dr Owens and her recipient, a woman with children and grandchildren from the North-West, went very well, with the donated kidney starting to work almost immediately.

One day after the operation Dr Owens got a letter from woman she helped, a woman whose name she can never know.

“I can’t tell you all she said in the letter,” said Dr Owens. “But I can tell you that she had waited ten years for a transplant.

"She told her family, her daughters, that she didn’t want to go on, that she just wanted to stop and let nature take its course. Just one week later she got the letter - there was a donor for her, another chance.”

*Dr Owens will deliver a public lecture at Teesside University on Wednesday, November 11 along with a leading kidney specialist, Dr Carolyn Wroe. Anyone wishing to attend must book through the university. Find out more about the NHS’s altruistic donation programme at organdonation.nhs.uk/about-donation/living-donation/