Radiographer donates kidney to help infant

BAME donors needed

Published: 04 December 2019 Radiographer donates kidney to help infant

A two-year old’s life has been transformed after a Society member donated her kidney.

Surinder Sapal, advanced practitioner radiographer at Leeds Teaching Hospitals, made the decision to donate the organ to Anaya Kandola after seeing an appeal on social media.

Anaya was born prematurely with enlarged kidneys. They had to be removed when she was a few weeks old, meaning she has spent much of her life on dialysis. No one in Anaya's family was a match and her ideal donor needed to be from a similar ethnicity.

Now, Surinder wants to help raise awareness about living organ donation. She said, “I feel amazing knowing that I have helped improve a child's health; she can now have a normal childhood.

“As a mother myself, I feel so happy that I have helped another mother make her child better.”

A shortage of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) donors means there are not enough to meet the needs of patients on the waiting list. Surinder wants to encourage BAME people to sign up to become donors and help save lives.

“I am hoping to inspire more living donors and help break barriers and myths in the community about living kidney donation,” she said.