Give a Kidney

President Dallas welcomed 25 members and guests to the 10 October meeting.  Members were reminded that the club's next major event for fun and fundraising, a Race Night, would take place on 20 October. It is shaping up well but more horse owners and racegoers are still urgently needed. These can be friends of members as well as club members. Advance notice was given that in 2018 the visit of friends from the Rotary Club of Ingoltstadt will take place from Thursday 31 May to Sunday 3 June.  

The speaker was Tracy Jolliffe. a very well qualified microbiologist based in Victoria Hospital and specialising in work to do with human kidneys. (Her knowledge and licences relevant to bats could well be a talk for another day). Tracy began by explaining the many ways in which active healthy kidneys influence the working of our body and what could be, and currently is, done if a kidney ceases to work properly. Some cases may be treatable by drugs but if kidney analysis comes to be used the disruption to normal life is enormous with 3 3hour sessions a week needed and a very restricted diet, all for just a 6% temporary improvement in the patient's condition.

There are currently 5000 patients, possibly for 3 years, waiting for a donated kidney of which 4000 will not get one and 400 will die while waiting. Although 41% of Scots carry donor cards permitting use of a body part after death, in practice circumstances prevent all but 1% of such donations being used. The good news is that in a fully fit body with two normal kidneys both of those kidneys only work at half their capacity and if one is lost the remaining one will automatically and quickly double its output. The other good news is that with the advancement of keyhole surgery  the removal of the diseased kidney and replacement with a healthy one is quicker, leaves a much smaller scar and requires a shorter recovery period.

A law change in 2007 means that a donated kidney no longer has to be used only on a relative but can be used by anyone who has a medically suitable match. Kidney problems do not just afflict older people and conversely older people can still donate, healthy, usable kidneys. The logic behind all of the above is that, with due care of medical vetting there is no reason why a person should not donate a kidney from their living body with no lasting effects to themselves but saving another's life. A charity, giveakidney.org  was founded in 2011 to urge people, for whatever reason, to do just that and in 2012 with all her medical knowledge the still lively Tracy became a shining example of someone “putting their money where their mouth is” and donated a kidney.

On behalf of the club Tony Payne thanked Tracy for a thought- provoking talk.