Lucy Humphrey, 44, who had had lupus for more than fifteen years, heard the worst possible news in 2019. Without a transplant, she had about five years left to live. Dialysis kept her alive, but exhausted, restricted, waiting for a donor who never came.
In June 2021, she went with her partner, Cenydd Owen, and their two dogs to Cold Knap Beach in Barry, Wales. There, her Doberman Indie kept approaching a woman who was alone, knitting a few meters away. Her name was Katie James, she was 40, and she ended up sitting with them at the barbecue. When she learned that Lucy was waiting for a kidney, she said something no one expected: she had just registered as a donor, and she was willing to give it to anyone who needed it.
Tests confirmed the unthinkable: they were 100% compatible, a 1 in 22 million coincidence. The transplant took place in October 2022 at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff. Today, Lucy is able to eat and drink whatever she wants again, and Katie, laughing, says that the only downside of donating a kidney was being exposed forever to Cenydd’s jokes.
