'Kidney donor gave me the gift of life'

A hospital worker said she was thinking of the organ donor and his family who helped change her life on the 20th anniversary of her kidney transplant.

Donna Hodgetts, 43, said her parents "always knew that I would have kidney failure one day", after she was born with dysplastic kidneys, meaning the organs had not developed properly.

Hodgetts, who works at Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital and is raising awareness about organ donation, needed regular dialysis as a child and teenager and said she had to miss many things as a result.

"I know my donor was someone who was killed in a car crash and what he did is give me the gift of life," the mother-of two said.

She added: "I'm whole again because of his generosity and his family supporting his decision."

Hodgetts is an echocardiography secretary in the cardiac investigations department at the hospital's Heart and Lung Centre, and also mum to two teenage girls.

"I'd never have been able to have children unless I'd had a kidney transplant and we'll be celebrating on the seventh of February, while also taking time to be thankful to the donor who has made my life possible," she said.

Hodgetts had kidney failure aged 10 and needed dialysis treatment from 19:00 to 07:00 every night and was also tube fed.

"This meant I missed out on all the usual childhood things, although I did just get on with it," she explained.

She was pleased to be able to have a kidney transplant as a youngster, but after three years this started to fail.

"I had to have dialysis three times a week for four hours, so once again I couldn't have a social life and missed out on all the fun things my friends were doing as teenagers," she said.

"But I started a youth training opportunity at New Cross and I'm proud to say that no matter how tired I was because of the dialysis, I always got out of bed to come to work because I loved my job."

She said the teams she worked with were "so supportive" and she was at work, aged 23, when she got a phone call to say she could have a second kidney transplant.

"I could barely speak, I was crying so much, and my colleague drove me home because I was in no fit state," she said.

She said 20 years after the transplant the kidney was "still going strong".

Hodgetts also met her husband at work, and said he and other family members have decided to become donors because of her story.

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