Stuart Keys rescued his beloved Andrea through an extraordinary ‘kidney swap’ with an anonymous couple from another part of the country
A devoted husband has saved his wife’s life by donating a kidney to a complete stranger.
Stuart Keys rescued his beloved Andrea through an extraordinary ‘kidney swap’ with an anonymous couple from another part of the country.
It was arranged when Andrea, 41, was told her kidneys were starting to fail and Stuart offered to donate one of his own.
Sadly, however, the pair were not a match.
Instead Stuart was offered the chance to help his wife and save a stranger’s life at the same time by taking part in a swap between hospitals.
The exchange saw all four go under the knife in a series of interlinked operations performed on the same day.
Andrea, from Throckley, near Newcastle, has been plagued with health problems since the age of 14 when she was diagnosed with Wilson’s Disease – a genetic disorder that results in a build-up of copper in the body.
She was told that without a liver transplant she would be dead within three weeks.
The transplant was successful, but in a cruel twist of fate the medication Andrea was given to stop her body rejecting the new liver then started causing her kidneys to fail.
The exchange saw all four go under the knife in a series of interlinked operations performed on the same day
By the time the couple eventually got the lifesaving call from the hospital, Andrea was spending hours a day hooked up to a dialysis machine at home.
‘It was horrible,’ she said.
‘Being on dialysis three times a day was so tiring, my memory was awful, I couldn’t write because my hands were shaking all the time.’
Stuart offered to donate one of his own kidneys to his wife of 17 years, but tests revealed that he and Andrea were not a match for a transplant.
But the pair, who are parents to Lara, 15, and Louis, 13, were thrown a potential lifeline when they were offered the chance to be part of a paired donation scheme.
Under the programme, when a donor and recipient are incompatible or mismatched with each other, they are matched with another donor and recipient pair in the same situation.
The kidneys are then swapped between one incompatible donor and recipient and another mismatched pair from a pool that runs every three months.
Andrea said: ‘We were in the pool for about six months – I was poorly in April so I wasn’t allowed, and we didn’t get a match in July.’
Under the programme, when a donor and recipient are incompatible or mismatched with each other, they are matched with another donor and recipient pair in the same situation. Pictured: Andrea and Stuart
But last October they finally received the call they had been praying for.
Stuart said: ‘I was on the way back from work and it was my daughter that rang me because Andrea was crying too much to speak.
‘She was just so shocked that it had actually happened. I remember just feeling pure relief.’
In January the pair went into Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital at the same time as their donor couple in a different hospital.
Andrea said: ‘Stuart went down for surgery first. The donors have to go down at exactly the same time in case someone pulls out halfway through.
‘I was really nervous thinking about that because it would have meant I had to wait again.
In January the pair went into Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital at the same time as their donor couple in a different hospital
‘Waiting to hear about how it had gone was awful – those were the longest few hours of my life.’
But soon doctors confirmed that Stuart’s kidney had been removed and was on the way to its recipient, while the other donor’s kidney was heading to Newcastle for Andrea.
She said: ‘As soon as I woke up I could feel the difference. I felt so much better than I had done in years.’
The couple were kept apart for two days after Stuart suffered a bad reaction to his painkillers.
When they were finally reunited in the hospital, Stuart said: ‘It was emotional for me because I could tell straight away she looked better.’
Stuart and Andrea are now back at home recuperating, and Andrea is already enjoying a new lease of life.
‘I can finally eat properly – my diet was so restricted when I was on dialysis. Now I can eat as much cheese as I want.’
On their donor couple, Stuart said: ‘There’s definitely a curiosity there. We did find out the kidney worked and the other donor was fine, but we’ve just left it at that really.’
Andrea added: ‘They’ve done exactly the same as we have – they’ve donated to save their partner.
‘I see Stuart as the person who saved my life, and I’m sure the other couple feel the same way.
‘He’s my donor and my hero.’